Independent Baptist Connection
This is Difficult!
Have you ever wondered why everything seems to happen to some people while others seems to go on year after year without a problem? Some people seem plagued with one heartache after another. Those of us that don’t live that way still wonder why so many hard times come into our lives! For us, the plagues are rare events, or so it seems.
These feelings have persisted throughout all of human history. The children of Israel endured 400 years of bondage in Egypt. No one knows how many times they asked why they suffered that way.
As Pharaoh’s army chased them to the shores of the Red Sea one day, the Israelites probably asked why. Mouths that craved water in the wilderness asked why. Forty years of wandering in the wilderness brought the same question to countless lips. Loved ones were lost through death, stomachs growled with hunger, and there was more sickness and disease than the historical record saved for modern times. This question was frequently asked: “Why?”
After wandering in the wilderness for forty years, the time was at hand for entry into the promised land. Moses gathered the people and he reminded them about how God cared for them even along the difficult paths of their hardships. Though some wanted to forget about the hard times, Moses exhorted the children of Israel to remember them! His efforts in this area did something remarkable. Those with doubts were led to see things from a different perspective.
“And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee, these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep is commandments or not.” Deuteronomy 8:2
Difficult paths lie ahead for each of us in the coming year, no doubt. Every trial, every heartache, every hurt and every difficulty has behind it a special Divine purpose. This isn’t as much for the Lord’s benefit as it is for our own.
The next time a heartache or a trouble enters your life, pray about it from a different perspective. Instead of asking why, try understanding God’s purpose for it. Listed below are some of the reasons Moses gave the children of Israel for the hardships they suffered as a nation.
To Humble Us
Ouch! Without a journey in the wilderness, Israel may have found itself too proud to be used by God. There are Christians today that God has blessed beyond what they ever expected. But along with those wonderful blessings come the temptations to look inwardly and secretly feel the pride of personal accomplishment. Who accomplished what? To God be the glory. The nation of Israel saw God do amazing things to get them out of Egypt and enable them to survive the hardships of the wilderness. It wasn’t Israel that whipped the Egyptians though. Nor was it the Jews that beat the wilderness, at least not by themselves. Who did it? God provided those things. Even Christians can forget that God does many things for them that they often think they did for themselves.
Instead of seeing the hard times as opportunities to learn something from the Lord, people get angry with God. Rather than make ourselves lowly, we lift ourselves up and point accusing fingers at the Lord who made us and allowed hardships into our lives.
This is human nature. It leads the world to see more of us and less of God.
“Yet hath he (God) respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.” Psalm 138:6
It is still true: God gives grace unto the humble. Without the hardships we have endured and survived by the grace of God, we too would find ourselves too proud for the Lord to use.
To prove Us
Ouch! I thought God already knew everything. If that’s true, why does God have to prove us to find out what we are like and what we’ll do? Rest assured, God is still omniscient. His desire isn’t to find out what He already knows for Himself. The intent is to help us see for ourselves what we are really “made of”. It’s an ugly sight that no one wants to believe just by hearing about it. After all, the best proof isn’t in what we say but in what we do.
The children of Israel already said they loved God and proudly announced they would do whatever God told them to do. In reality, though, despite the talk they uttered their walk was another story. Without the “proving trials” of the children of Israel, they would never see for themselves what they were really like in their relationship with God.
So God tested their faith in the wilderness, just as He tests our faith in the world. Their tests were nothing less than preparations for the future. Whew! God must have a wonderful future in store for many of His children (aside from heaven). I would rather have the blessing and forget about the trial.
God often speaks about refining His people as silver is refined. Silver is always silver and gold always gold. Still, those metals need purification in order to be easily recognized or used by normal people. This is the refining process. Not until we find ourselves “refined” through the heat of trials and hardships, can the “purity” of what is really there be seen by those around us. Our mettle needs testing in order to make us more useful while preparing us for the future use of the One who loves us most.
To check our obedience
The human heart has always been deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. While the world tell well meaning people to just trust or follow their own hearts along the road of life, God’s Word says this is a dangerous path to follow. Without the trials in the wilderness journey, the children of Israel would find themselves trusting in their hearts and not trusting in the Lord with all their heart. It reveals itself as an ugly picture to look beneath the surface.
What’s in there? God used Moses to remind the children of Israel that they needed to stop and take an honest inward look once in a while. The Lord has always wanted more than a people who honor Him with the lips while their hearts are far from Him. Think about Matthew 15:8.
It isn’t easy to admit there are still people like that today. Making such a statement does not endear the speaker to the hearts of the people either. I don’t like admitting it or talking about it myself because I’m as human as the rest of us.
I don’t like testing and I don’t like hardship and I’m not asking God to put me through more of it because I wrote about it here. Without the testing and the hardship and the difficulty, though, we seldom take the inward look and see for ourselves how desperately we really need the Lord.
Christians the world over readily admit they keep the Lord’s commandments. The only way to prove it is by whether or not they still follow God’s Word when it isn’t easy to do so. How do we conduct ourselves when we’re being watched? Do we behave differently when nobody sees us?
If you have been wandering through the wilderness for any length of time, you’ve probably asked the Lord why. It isn’t necessarily to punish us or even to break us. Instead of looking at the situation as totally hopeless, consider what we just wrote. Perhaps God is trying to bring humility or maybe the Lord is trying to help us prove ourselves or see how we have learned to depend on our own talents and abilities instead of God’s provision for our needs. Maybe our Christian character needs some refinement. What is really inside of us? Why are these things happening now? Is it time to turn our eyes upon Jesus?
These feelings have persisted throughout all of human history. The children of Israel endured 400 years of bondage in Egypt. No one knows how many times they asked why they suffered that way.
As Pharaoh’s army chased them to the shores of the Red Sea one day, the Israelites probably asked why. Mouths that craved water in the wilderness asked why. Forty years of wandering in the wilderness brought the same question to countless lips. Loved ones were lost through death, stomachs growled with hunger, and there was more sickness and disease than the historical record saved for modern times. This question was frequently asked: “Why?”
After wandering in the wilderness for forty years, the time was at hand for entry into the promised land. Moses gathered the people and he reminded them about how God cared for them even along the difficult paths of their hardships. Though some wanted to forget about the hard times, Moses exhorted the children of Israel to remember them! His efforts in this area did something remarkable. Those with doubts were led to see things from a different perspective.
“And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee, these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep is commandments or not.” Deuteronomy 8:2
Difficult paths lie ahead for each of us in the coming year, no doubt. Every trial, every heartache, every hurt and every difficulty has behind it a special Divine purpose. This isn’t as much for the Lord’s benefit as it is for our own.
The next time a heartache or a trouble enters your life, pray about it from a different perspective. Instead of asking why, try understanding God’s purpose for it. Listed below are some of the reasons Moses gave the children of Israel for the hardships they suffered as a nation.
To Humble Us
Ouch! Without a journey in the wilderness, Israel may have found itself too proud to be used by God. There are Christians today that God has blessed beyond what they ever expected. But along with those wonderful blessings come the temptations to look inwardly and secretly feel the pride of personal accomplishment. Who accomplished what? To God be the glory. The nation of Israel saw God do amazing things to get them out of Egypt and enable them to survive the hardships of the wilderness. It wasn’t Israel that whipped the Egyptians though. Nor was it the Jews that beat the wilderness, at least not by themselves. Who did it? God provided those things. Even Christians can forget that God does many things for them that they often think they did for themselves.
Instead of seeing the hard times as opportunities to learn something from the Lord, people get angry with God. Rather than make ourselves lowly, we lift ourselves up and point accusing fingers at the Lord who made us and allowed hardships into our lives.
This is human nature. It leads the world to see more of us and less of God.
“Yet hath he (God) respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.” Psalm 138:6
It is still true: God gives grace unto the humble. Without the hardships we have endured and survived by the grace of God, we too would find ourselves too proud for the Lord to use.
To prove Us
Ouch! I thought God already knew everything. If that’s true, why does God have to prove us to find out what we are like and what we’ll do? Rest assured, God is still omniscient. His desire isn’t to find out what He already knows for Himself. The intent is to help us see for ourselves what we are really “made of”. It’s an ugly sight that no one wants to believe just by hearing about it. After all, the best proof isn’t in what we say but in what we do.
The children of Israel already said they loved God and proudly announced they would do whatever God told them to do. In reality, though, despite the talk they uttered their walk was another story. Without the “proving trials” of the children of Israel, they would never see for themselves what they were really like in their relationship with God.
So God tested their faith in the wilderness, just as He tests our faith in the world. Their tests were nothing less than preparations for the future. Whew! God must have a wonderful future in store for many of His children (aside from heaven). I would rather have the blessing and forget about the trial.
God often speaks about refining His people as silver is refined. Silver is always silver and gold always gold. Still, those metals need purification in order to be easily recognized or used by normal people. This is the refining process. Not until we find ourselves “refined” through the heat of trials and hardships, can the “purity” of what is really there be seen by those around us. Our mettle needs testing in order to make us more useful while preparing us for the future use of the One who loves us most.
To check our obedience
The human heart has always been deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. While the world tell well meaning people to just trust or follow their own hearts along the road of life, God’s Word says this is a dangerous path to follow. Without the trials in the wilderness journey, the children of Israel would find themselves trusting in their hearts and not trusting in the Lord with all their heart. It reveals itself as an ugly picture to look beneath the surface.
What’s in there? God used Moses to remind the children of Israel that they needed to stop and take an honest inward look once in a while. The Lord has always wanted more than a people who honor Him with the lips while their hearts are far from Him. Think about Matthew 15:8.
It isn’t easy to admit there are still people like that today. Making such a statement does not endear the speaker to the hearts of the people either. I don’t like admitting it or talking about it myself because I’m as human as the rest of us.
I don’t like testing and I don’t like hardship and I’m not asking God to put me through more of it because I wrote about it here. Without the testing and the hardship and the difficulty, though, we seldom take the inward look and see for ourselves how desperately we really need the Lord.
Christians the world over readily admit they keep the Lord’s commandments. The only way to prove it is by whether or not they still follow God’s Word when it isn’t easy to do so. How do we conduct ourselves when we’re being watched? Do we behave differently when nobody sees us?
If you have been wandering through the wilderness for any length of time, you’ve probably asked the Lord why. It isn’t necessarily to punish us or even to break us. Instead of looking at the situation as totally hopeless, consider what we just wrote. Perhaps God is trying to bring humility or maybe the Lord is trying to help us prove ourselves or see how we have learned to depend on our own talents and abilities instead of God’s provision for our needs. Maybe our Christian character needs some refinement. What is really inside of us? Why are these things happening now? Is it time to turn our eyes upon Jesus?