I want to take you through a few select Scriptures today with one thing in mind, and that is this: To show you that God permits or arranges hardships in our lives as part of His intimate work in and upon and through the lives of His children.
Listen :
His purpose in doing so is to thoroughly redeem us from what we used to be, transform you and me into the image in heart and character of His beloved Son Jesus, and give us peace in spite of the growing chaos of this life. God knows you inside-and-out and has a restoration plan that is one-of-a-kind for each of us that He works throughout the days of our lives.
We would be wise to cooperate with Him, especially during the times of hardships for they are part of the ways of God. Let us be open to the fact that whom He loves He chastises, which usually does not mean punishes.
For the child of God hardships are the result of the issues of life that are either common to man or are by our own making, which God permits to happen and uses to train us, if we will be.
But sometimes hardships are arranged by God along our life’s path to bring to our attention to things God wants us to recognize and realize they are not in agreement with the ways of God, and then submit to needed changes in who we are.
So as one born again from above and now a child of God we must understand that all our hardships are opportunities to be “tutored, trained, and educated” (chastised), with our thoughts and ways being changed to agree with God’s and our hearts to be like Jesus’.
So how do these hardships come about in your life and mine?
Wrong choices or some that do not turn out the way we thought they would, financial trouble, sickness or disease, setbacks at our job, rejection by others, the failure of an endeavor, betrayals, physical disabilities, loss of a loved one, trouble in the home, persecution for our faith; essentially anything that affects our life in a way that we view as negative that slows us down, stops our hoped-for progress, or ends something we wanted to continue.
These things usually cause a change in our planned direction, or where God is concerned brings a change in our character and our future.
Do you remember Jacob’s son Joseph? If you do, you know his is a strange but wonderful story of hardships that resulted in his very needed training, preparation and appointment as the governor of Egypt, which was a major part of God’s plan to eventually provide us a Savior—His Name is Jesus.
As a young boy Joseph made some mistakes that caused his older brothers to hate him ... and sold him into slavery.
They sold him into slavery, he was falsely accused of attempted rape, thrown into Pharaoh’s prison for more than 2 years, and then finally one day and literally overnight thrust into responsibilities as the second in charge of all Egypt under the mighty Pharaoh.
God gave him wisdom and insight about the coming times of feast and then terrible famine, which then brought his 10 brothers to bow before him just like Joseph had dreamed—yet he was humble and recognized that all he had been through, all his hardships, were by the hand of God.
The many things and years of hardships for Joseph were to build spiritual character and to prepare him for God’s call on his life—the Lord had intentions for this young man (as He does for you and me).
Joseph was the second youngest of 12 brethren and became the least esteemed and then despised even as an adolescent; he took it in stride. He was later accosted by his brothers and then dropped into a pit then sold to foreigners like some troublesome goat. He soon became the property and servant of a powerful man in Egypt but made the best of it and was blessed.
By refusing sexual temptation he ended up in Pharaoh’s prison for more than 2 years, yet did not lose heart but served everyone in the dungeons always giving his best.
And because of a gift seen early in his life, he was finally elevated to prominence and usefulness to God; his faithful and patient relationship with the Lord had fully prepared him throughhardships for great service to God through what nearly all others would have deemed a terrible and depressing life.
Are there others that represent patience through hardships that were permitted or arranged by God? Yes, more than we can cover today.
When I consider the 40-year trek in the Wilderness by the children of Israel, who as a people 400 years in Egypt were more pagan than God-fearing, I am surprised they were not wiped out by God more than once for their stubbornness and disbelief.
Theirs was a journey of hardships needed to refine them and prepare them to be a people of the eternal God and to become fit to know and worship and serve Him.
Think of it, they had seen God’s mighty power by the 10 plagues and their being kept separate, yet they cowered and complained at the Red Sea.
Later and more than once they complained when there was no visible water. They ran out of food and then whined for flesh to eat. They rose up against Moses and Aaron despising their unique calling by God, and so many more uprisings. They didn’t like all the commands of God but wanted to live their own lives on their own terms.
Your hardships and mine are to prepare us to be patient and faithful to our God during these days of our redemption. You and I are in our own wilderness wanderings so let us always look to the Lord and do it without complaining and wishing for the good old days because those days were lived on that road to destruction.
We are going to face days where food is no longer available to us and at times an absence of water may try to threaten us. There will be times when spiritual and physical enemies will come against us to steal, destroy and kill but we can even be victorious against those that can “eat us up!”
If you don’t know these things and strengthen yourself in patience and faithfulness toward our God then, like the many faithless that came out of Egypt but never made it to their Promised Land, you may not ever get to our Promised Land of Heaven but will instead resort to what the world offers you and be lost.
Those times of needed patience and faithfulness toward God are prophesied for you and I in these last days:
IS this present age in the 21st century full of hardships for you (it doesn’t get better until Jesus returns)? Do you wish you were born in a different time? You must get over it because God arranged it all!
Allow your troubles to cause you to quickly reflect upon the Lord, praise Him in all circumstances, and the purposes of your hardships will have their divinely desired effect.
There will be a Part Two with how we can do these very things.
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