I’ve been getting a lot of questions regarding not seeing “the fruits of your labor”. How you have been seeing others excelling, going on trips, in a relationship you always wanted to be in and so you ask, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” You feel like Job’s character in the bible on how you are faithfully obeying God but your trials keep piling on you. You’ve graduated college but you can’t find a job, you abstained from sex yet you still haven’t found “the one”, you try to save but more bills keep piling on– IT’S NOT FAIR you say! However, I believe there is a misconception that once you follow Jesus that somehow you are immune from troubles, that everything will automatically fall into place. Now, God does promise that all things will align for your good, but not always when you want it to. Let’s break this down. How long was it before you accepted Christ? How long were you out in the world? Yet God was patient enough and waited for you to totally surrender your lifestyle to follow him. So those years that you were out of the will of God, might take just that long if not longer to actually rebuild you from the inside out; and that inside is your way of thinking and the out is your external circumstance. If you read Matthew 8:18-20 it reads:
When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
Jesus was basically telling the crowd around him “Ok, you can follow me but just to let you know I am homeless. This means that we might have to be and sleep in some rough and uncomfortable spots.” This goes for us as well! He is telling us “Ok you can follow me but just to let you know YOU might be in some tough situations, some things you go through might be a little uncomfortable for you [you might lose friends, you might not be able to find a job right away, etc.] However, for each uncomfortable experience comes growth, self-development and spiritual victory. Are you patient enough and willing to lose what seems important to this earthly world only to gain your treasures in heaven? Seeing a smaller picture now but eventually fulfilling God’s bigger picture for your future?
So today I won’t end this blog with an answer on what you should or should not do but I leave you with the thought of the day: How far are you willing to follow Jesus?
Starving Christians 