The bible talks about 7 year seasons. Looking back I can see them in my own lifetime.
7 years where biz was great! The Midas touch! Every business deal would work out great and turn to Gold!
Then, without warning, the wind would change and my success was limited to just staying afloat. No real change in the game plan just a difference in results. Small profits or total loses.
So….Did God love me the 7 good years and not so much during the 7 bad years? Maybe my heart was just better during the 7 good years and God just wanted to show me I was on the right track? It can be very frustrating to see bad things happening around you and not think that they are connected to your own actions! Right?
Unfortunately, many Religious Christians today think good stuff comes from good actions in your life! And Bad things happen because of an obvious presence of sin in your life. I’m sorry for you if you have you ever experienced that type of counsel or teaching? ( Remember, Jesus was tempted by the Devil, won the battle, filled with the Holy Spirit, then immediately rejected by his own people in Nazareth! Luke 4)
Because If GOOD THINGS only happen to GOOD PEOPLE and BAD THINGS only happen to BAD PEOPLE then something went CRAZY sideways for JESUS!
Many bad things happened to Jesus! He healed beggars and lepers, but was horribly let down or even betrayed by friends he loved? He was gifted to know amazing things about God but his religion called him a liar! He only spoke of peace and obedience to earthly leadership but was conspired against by politics and religion!
So I guess if Good things happen to Good people and Bad things only happen to Bad people then Jesus must have really made God mad on his way to the cross to die for US! That’s just ridiculous! And frankly very damaging to a Christian believers understanding and growth!
In my life the worst things that ever happened to me, ultimately drew me closer to God’s love? So, I knew bad stuff has its place but what about after you get saved and start living right with God? Why does bad stuff happen then?
I was confused! I thought he died for our sins! I thought the blood of Jesus Christ, was shed for me! I thought his dying on a cross , rising again 3 days later proved he had beaten death, for people like me! I thought if I recognize that fact and acknowledge that he had to be the Son of God to pull that off, and if I confess him as my Savior, ask for his forgiveness then I am saved from death! Not only that but now God only sees me as HOLY through the lens of MY SAVIORS cleansing blood!
Now that’s either true or it isn’t! SO IF IM HOLY, WHY IS BAD STUFF HAPPENING ALL AROUND ME AND TO ME? I prayed for over a year for God to explain this question to me. Finally, one day I woke up out of a deep sleep and I had a verse in my brain that I had never read. The verse of the bible was Isaiah 24 :16. It said, “From the ends of the earth we hear singing but alas I say to you the treacherous deal treacherously, the treacherous deal very treacherously”.
Ok, so I’m a Christian musician. I get the singing part. Got it! A confirmation that singing about God will be a battle. Got it! I’m ready to battle the enemy and every time I went into the prisons or the streets I was prepped for battle. I was prayed up and in the full armor of God! Got it all!
Then one day the enemy stuck up on me from a direction I was not ready for….the church. I was so betrayed! It took me out completely for 14 years. I was angry again, mad at the world again, and mad at God again. Finally, through many years alone with God, I came to know that God does not bring bad things into my life but he will allow them to pierce my armor in areas I’m still not prepared against.
I learned to never make a church or a person more valuable to me than Jesus Christ. Never to let my talents or possessions become more important than Jesus Christ. Now, I don’t put any value on the opinions of others only on the word of God. Do I expect times of trouble? Yep, right up until the day I die!
And because I know personally how my life changed when I accepted that truth I can say in complete confidence that NONE of what is happening today is because God is mad. It is happening because God has always used both GOOD and BAD to teach us what is important. Trouble and deception will always exist on this earth and fortunately, it also drives us to our knees like Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane! Straight to the presence of God where the true BATTLE RAGES but the really GOOD stuff happens!
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