When God Puts You in Trouble

Lately, it seems that so many Christians are going through a difficult season. I am hearing certain people say they are discouraged when I have never heard this from them before. I am going through one of those periods too, but I realize God may have ordained it. God may put us in trouble for a reason. I know many people may get upset and say God would not do anything bad to us. However, all we need to do is look at the life of Jesus. His purpose was to die an excruciating death for us.

For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death, because He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth.  But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand. Isaiah 53:2-10

“The Lord was pleased to crush Him” doesn’t sound like a good Father. But all this pain was in God’s plan for Jesus His Son so that we too would become children of God if we believe in Jesus. Jesus was put in trouble so that we could be reconciled with the Father. When we have surrendered our lives to God, our troubles may be by God’s design for a greater purpose. Joseph could not have saved a nation if he weren’t put in a pit and sold into slavery then put in prison because of Potiphar’s lustful lying wife. A Jewish boy couldn’t just go into Egypt and be placed in position as the second in command to Pharaoh. The Egyptian abhorred shepherds and this was the chief occupation of the Jews. So, Joseph had to endure hardship to fulfill his prophetic dreams and in so doing he saved his people. The hardship was necessary. During his time in Potiphar’s house and in prison, he was able to learn about Egyptian culture while becoming fluent in the language. His brothers didn’t even recognize him when they saw him because he had blended into the Egyptian society. He also honed his administrative skills during this time, but more importantly he continued to grow trusting his God in spite of his troubles. He knew God had put him through all the problems for a purpose.

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive. Isaiah 50:20

God had used the evil for good. He made Joseph experience all this evil because this was the route to Pharaoh’s palace.  Sometimes, we may think the pain is unnecessary.  We may bemoan Job’s trials and wonder why God allowed him to go through all he did but then find solace knowing that he got “double for his trouble” as many preachers say. Job lost ten children, and although he had ten more in his restoration period, he may still have grieved the first ten who he loved so much and had offered sacrifices on their behalf. We are not certain of what happened with his wife who was a thorn in his flesh when he had his problems. She wanted him to curse God and die. But thankfully he didn’t listen to her unwise advice. However, I am not sure if she was the mother of the ten other children. And on the topic of thorns, Paul had a thorn in his flesh too which he described as a “messenger of Satan to torment me”. No, it wasn’t a nagging wife as he was never married. We can only surmise what this thorn might have been, but he had asked God to take it away three times. However, God’s response was “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”  This thorn had kept Paul from exalting himself and he was kept by God’s grace through it all. I thank God, because His grace helps us when we are in troubled times.

For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:15-16

Jesus, our High Priest, is our great example of how we should respond when God puts us in trouble. I know we don’t even want to think of God putting us in trouble and you may not even agree with me. But when we obey God and are in His will, the enemy of our soul is upset and he will come to steal, kill and destroy what God is doing in us. And in the midst of the devil prowling around like a roaring lion, we need to count it all joy as we go through the trials that may come our way, even though this can be very difficult. Job understood when most of what he had was lost that the Lord gives and the Lord takes away and he still blessed the name of the Lord. When we go through the trials, we need to always remember that God is with us, and we do not have to despair or be anxious because He strengthens us and helps us while holding us with His righteous right hand.  We must understand that we have to endure many hardships to enter the kingdom of God, but His grace is sufficient during these times. And we should always remember that we go through these afflictions in His power and not our own.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed. 2 Corinthians 4:7-9