“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” II Corinthians 4:17
(I Part)
God has a purpose behind every problem. He uses circumstances to develop our character. In fact, he depends more on circumstances to make us like Jesus than he depends on reading the Bible. The reason is obvious: You face circumstances twenty-four hours a day.
Jesus warned us that we would have problems in the world-“John 16:33. Nobody is immune to pain or insulated from suffering, and no one gets to skate through life problem-free. Life is a series of problems. Every time you solve one, another is waiting to take its place. Not all of them are big, but all are significant in God’s growth process for you. Peter assures us that problems are normal saying, “Don’t be bewildered or surprised when you go through the fiery trials ahead, for this no strange, unusual thing that is going to happen to you” I Peter 4:12. God uses problems to draw your closer to himself. The Bible says. “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted, he rescues those who are crushed in spirit”. Psalm 34:18. Your most profound and intimate experiences of worship will likely be in your darkest days-when your heart is broken, when you feel abandoned, when you’re out of options, when the pain is great!!- when you feel lonely and your turn to God. When we are in pain, we don’t have the energy for superficial prayers .Only in suffering will we know Jesus. We learn things about God in suffering that we can’t learn any other way.
God could have kept Joseph our of jail (Genesis 39:20-22), kept Daniel out of the lion’s den, (Daniel 6:16-23),kept Jeremiah from being tossed into a slimy pit,(Jeremiah 38:6) ,kept Paul from being shipwrecked three times,(II Cor.11:25)and kept the three Hebrews young men from being thrown into the blazing furnace (Daniel 3:1-26 )but he didn’t. He let those problems happen and every one of those persons was drawn closer to God as a result. Regardless of the cause, none of your problems could happen without God’s permission. Everything that happens to a child of God is Father-filtered.and he intends to use it for good even when Satan and others mean it for bad.
Everything that happens to you has spiritual significance. Romans 8:28-29 give us a reason: “We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. For God knew his people in advance ,and he chose them to become like his Son. (Continue..)