Dealing With The Unexpected Challenges of Life -- part 3
Have these words ever come out of your mouth before? “Lord, why is this happening to me?” Let’s be honest now. I can’t imagine that any of us have not cried out to God asking Him why we are being thrust into unexpected difficult situations!
Through my life journey with the Lord, I have found at least four possibilities of why unexpected things take place in our lives. Today let’s look at two of these and perhaps one or more of them will bring clarity or even comfort to you in your own challenges.
Sometimes God allows the unexpected to encourage us to trust and rely on Him more fully.
Paul writes this in 2 Corinthians 1: 8-9 (ESV). “For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.”
Mothers of Nations, we can’t ever start to think that God bestows His goodness on us because we deserve it. We also can’t think that somehow God saved us through HIS power but now we will take it from here and live the Christian life in OUR power.
God may use unexpected hardships or challenges to help us realize that people, things, honors, etc. will fail us at times. Our TRUST is not in these but rather to be in God alone. We are always dependent on His love and His gracious enabling and unexpected circumstances certainly will challenge our level of trust in Him!
Sometimes God uses our reaction to the unexpected as a witness to others.
Truly, demonstrating trust in God in the tough times is a great witness to the world. When people know that we serve the Lord and they see us managing difficulties by trusting in God, they see that our faith is real.
The apostle Paul knew this well. His “thorn in the flesh” caused him great grief and three times he asked the Lord to be relieved of this affliction. (Why is this happening to me?) And what was God’s answer?
2 Corinthians 12: 8-10 (ESV) “Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But He said to me, My grace is sufficient to you, for My power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
What incredible trust Paul had in the Lord and what an awesome witness he was to others (and to us still today).
Many Christians believe that because they are saved, life should have no hardships whatsoever. Paul certainly shatters that myth in this passage, showing us that even his prayers were not answered the way he wanted them answered. However, he also tells us that it is in times of our greatest weakness and trouble that God is most powerfully at work in our lives.
I remember an extremely difficult, unexpected challenge that happened to us in the early years of our marriage where God used our heartache to witness our faith to others. I was pregnant with our first child and “unexpectedly” I started into labor prematurely. The doctors did all they knew to do with the technology of those days but after ten days, our premature son passed away.
The whole experience was a whirlwind of surprise, shock, grief, and great emotional trauma. There was no indication throughout my pregnancy that this could happen. We left the hospital’s intensive care unit empty handed to a home with a room already prepared as our new child’s nursery.
Yet in our distress, I remember so well how the Lord used us to comfort those who had come to comfort us! Supernaturally the Holy Spirit would give us words to share with others when words came so hard and slow for them. The Lord used our time of heartache to bond us with our church family and with those who were near and dear to us. It was a most difficult time of life but as the years unfolded, the Lord was faithful to us to restore and heal in incredible ways. He is always faithful!
Next week let’s look at two more possible ways that God can positively work with the unexpected difficult challenges that come to our lives. Remember, our Lord wants the best for us in all facets of our lives. He is WITH us. He is FOR us. And He always causes us to triumph!
Blessings,
Rev. Nola Beintema
