Since the beginning of time, there has been this question, or some form of it ” Why do bad things happen to good people?” Some philosophers have asked ” What is justice?” Now Christians are not immune to these thoughts or questions, in fact I would argue, that we will all ask that question to one degree or another at some point in our walk, maybe at many points in our walk.

Now there are certain times in our life when it is not just one bad thing that happens. Sometimes they overlap don’t they? They threaten to overwhelm us and those initial questions are simply intensified as we try to figure out what is going on and what is the purpose of it all. Many of you will readily identify with these times. They are specific times when the enemy comes in like a flood and threatens to drown us in our circumstances. We scramble in our minds to make sense of it all. We hear familiar Scriptures from our hearts reminding us that God will never leave us nor forsake us yet that is exactly how we feel, left and forsaken and then the hammer drops again.

Can I suggest that life, the Christian life, whether you know it or not is an all out battle. There is an enemy of your soul and he does seek to drown you. He seeks to simply sweep you away by wave after wave of circumstances. It is in these times that we make life altering decisions. Now remember what the enemy is after is your testimony, make no mistake about that. He does not care about you at all, what he wants you to do is to curse God and die. He wants others to see, as they look upon your circumstances, merely a man or a woman just like them. He wants to steal hope from your heart. He wants to present you as hopeless to the world so that a hopeless world can take comfort from the fact that there is really nothing in what you have said in the past. It was merely all words and now circumstances have revealed that you are no different from them.

He wants to rob you of your peace, he wants to show the world that the peace that you claimed to have was merely circumstantial peace, not a supernatural peace that surpasses understanding. He wants to present you to the world as just like them and that as long as things are going okay then you have peace, but as soon as you are opposed by trial and circumstance, then your peace is gone, just like theirs. He wants to rob you of your joy. He wants to show the world that this joy that you had was not supernatural, but merely a happiness that the world understands which again is gleaned from circumstances. He does not want the world to see the kind of joy that Paul presents after having been scourged and thrown into a dungeon and yet begins to praise God in the darkness of the night. And in that incident we see that this kind of joy, this supernatural joy is a door that leads from the deepest valleys, the darkest nights, the most gruesome of circumstances into the throne room of God Himself. This open door allows the power of God to flow into that very darkness and convince those who dwell in that darkness that there is a light that can redeem them from their chains.

We are a people set apart from the world by God to show His glory. We are His answer to the accuser. Listen saints, I know it very rarely feels like it, but there is glory in our sufferings. When we are the target of the enemy of our souls and we stand strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, then this faith, this trust in God pleases Him. We know that without faith it is impossible to please Him. In this context it simply means to trust Him. There is a purpose in your suffering and it may never be revealed to you on this side of eternity, but there is a purpose. God bless you in your suffering, look for the open door to the glories of heaven. Paul and Silas found it. It is yours to walk though. And in that place you will rise up with wings as eagles. Strength will return to you. And there lies before you an eternal reward.

Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.(Heb 12:11-13)