As I write these words to encourage you, you may be walking through a difficult time in your life. I purposely write about the “hard” things of the journey of faith because I have been there myself. These truths have encouraged me! You may be fighting against the crashing waves of grief, disappointment, or difficulty in your life. This article topic came from 2 sermons from Adrian Rogers. You can watch these sermons for yourself here:
Setting: Passage 1 Matthew 14:22-33
Prior to this episode, we need to consider the following from verse 1-21
- Jesus hears that His cousin John the Baptist has been unjustly executed v1-12
- Jesus withdraws to pray by Himself.
- A crowd of people finds Him and Jesus has compassion and heals.
- Jesus feeds thousands of hungry with the five loaves and two fish.
The disciples and people have just experienced a miracle. Remember that every miracle in the Gospels is recorded for a reason–to reveal Jesus’ identity and power. Jesus reveals Himself to be the Bread of Life (John 6:26-51).
Matthew and Mark indicate that Jesus “compelled” the disciples to get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus sends the crowd away and goes up to the mountain to pray by Himself. An important question is why He had to pressure them to get into the boat? It’s possible that the disciples having being fishermen were aware of the contrary winds and possibility of a storm forming/coming. Why didn’t Jesus accompany them? Why did He send them into a storm and difficulty?
Why Does God allow or send storms into our lives?
God will send storms in our lives. Christians face terminal illnesses, lose jobs, have family problems, and ultimately die just like the lost people of the world. Have you ever considered the missionaries and believers who followed God to a place where they ultimately died from illness or murder? Why did God send them where He knew that they would experience difficulty and death? Why does God allow horrible things to happen in churches or lives of His people?
This doesn’t seem like a Loving, Kind, Forgiving God. But this is the reality. How many church and school shootings have happened over this past year? How do we reconcile the terrible things of our lives and this world with the truth that God is Perfectly Good and Wise?
https://www.gotquestions.org/bad-things-good-people.html
We face an important choice in what we believe about God. First, we can believe that things just happen due to “fate” or some accident. This heresy teaches that bad things just happen. We are victims to bad circumstances or “luck.” This belief has it roots in paganism. Consider the Greek “fates”. Similar is that people suffer because they have done bad things. In John 9, the disciples ask why the man was born blind–who sinned? It’s a false notion that we suffer because of sins we have done. This is partly, but not fully true. Our sins do lead to suffering in our lives and others, but this man was born blind. 3 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. KJV
This man’s situation-blindness and begging–happened so that God’s might reveal Jesus as the “Light of the World.” God had a purpose for his blindness. God has a purpose for us too!
We can wrongly believe that God isn’t active or involved in our world (Deism). Some wrongly believe that God is aware, but learning (Open Theism) or unable to control people/events due to “free will” of humans. This is a popular, but serious heresy that distorts God’s Revealed Nature according to His Word.
It’s difficult to fully understand that God is All Powerful and All Loving. We want God to stop all the evil, protect us, and prevent the horrors of life. Why do we struggle with this? Because we know that things should be better. God has put a desire in our hearts for eternity. This world isn’t our home! We can’t be truly comfortable or safe here!
https://www.gotquestions.org/eternity-in-our-hearts.html
I continue this discussion in the following article:
Words of Grace & Hope 