The Goodness of Trouble in its effect on our lives

         One of the major reasons why God sends or allows trouble to come our way is to make us realize our absolute dependence on the Lord because it is that, more than anything else, that will humble us and keep us from being proud, which is the devil's pernicious sin and our constant temptation. 'God alone knows how to humble us without humiliating us and how to exalt us without flattering us and how he effects this is the grand truth of the Christian message.” Ravi Zacharias, 'Why Jesus?' page 59

         We didn't create ourselves and we can't even keep ourselves alive. We must look to God for the very breath we breathe and for the ability to do so. So much trouble came to the Apostle Paul and his fellow workers that they 'despaired even of life.' 'We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.' And they knew why that happened: 'But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God.' 2 Cor. 1:8-9 NIV So they learned to look to God and to depend on Him and not on themselves to take them through their problems.

         And they had a promise to help them do that: 'God will not allow you to be tempted [or, tested] beyond what you are able to bear, but will with the [testing] provide a way out so that you are able to endure it.' 1 Cor. 10:13 HCSB, NIV, ESV, NAS

       And one of the best promises of all in the entire Bible is one of its most famous verses:   Romans 8:28 ^'And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.'

         Not all things are good, but God can use even the hardships, difficulties, and problems in our life to work them together to bring about good. Good? What kind of good? Character good, exalting Christ good, realistically good—NOT cynical or hopeless, but anticipating the glories that most certainly will eventually come about as God works all things after the counsel of His will. And His will and His ways are what we have to learn. 'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.' Isaiah 55:8 ESV

        Both of my daughters have recently been telling me about a book that has been very helpful in their lives: I read it a year or so ago and it was a great blessing so let me quote just a few things I underlined in that book for my own benefit. The Promise: God Works All Things Together for Your Good by Robert Morgan, 2010.

        'The Holy Spirit, who doesn't waste words in the Bible, began the sentence, not with an emphasis on what God is going to do, but with an emphasis on what our attitude should be about it. The primary subject is the pronoun we, and the primary verb is know. Romans 8.28 thus begins with a statement of certitude. . . .

          'We don't hope, hypothesize, or hallucinate. We don't postulate, speculate, or fabricate. We don't toss and turn in anxiety. We simply know. We know God, therefore we know His power, understand something of His providence, and can trust His provision.

        'It's certain. For sure. Positive. Fail-safe. Inevitable. It's God's guarantee, and it can never be otherwise.

         'This is an attitude we see throughout Scripture. The word know occurs 1,098 times from Genesis to Revelation, and we're instructed to approach life with total trust in the realities of Christ.

'I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.' Job 19.25

'I have written these things . . . that you may know that you have eternal life.' 1 John 5.13

        'Faith is the ability to tackle life with confidence, come what may, knowing that the trustworthy promises of God are precisely as real as the transient circumstances around us. Faith is believing that God will do exactly as He has said. Living by faith isn't a matter of sticking our heads in the sand and hoping for the best. It's confronting the realities of life from the perspective of God's immutable, unbreakable, unfailing Word. Those who live by faith don't have a 'hope so' optimism. They live in the society of the certain.

         'Yes, the Bible does use the word hope. But in the Bible, hope is not synonymous with maybe. Biblical hope refers to sure and certain expectations, which, because they're still in the future, create in us a sense of anticipation.'

        These are truths that last and that God uses to take us all the way Home where He will 'bring us safely into His heavenly kingdom.' 2 Tim.4.18 They are the anchor that holds and grips the solid rock. 'We have this hope [this 'expectant certainty'] as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.' Heb. 6.19 It wouldn't be much of an anchor if it didn't include certitude. The promises are rooted in the character and strength of God Himself.

          But don't miss that all-important immediate personal element: it is the Lord Himself who will do all of this: “. . . no one came to my support . . . but the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength . . . . The Lord . . . will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom.” “I will never leave you nor forsake you” is another of His promises. Heb.13.5-6 ^'Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me. . . ' Ps.23.4