We all want success in just about every part of our lives. No one wants to consider failure or ill occurrences happening in any day. The source of bad may come from any direction, circumstance, or person. Sometimes, bad requires suffering. It can last a short while or extend over a long period. We try to avoid it in any way possible. Our efforts to fix it or avoid it can be sometimes in vain.
Stop to think about this. We want good to happen all the time for ourselves, our friends, and our loved ones. We pray for good. We ask God to intervene in times of bad. We seek the circumstances that could lead to good in our lives.
BUT-let me ask you a question. When things are going good in your life, how much have you learned? How has it caused you to go in a better direction. In short, good may not be that good.
On the other hand, even though we do not want bad things to happen, it is in that valley of despair and confusion that we are most likely to benefit. It is then that we call out to God and attempt to be as close to him as possible. It is when we are in the doldrums, ill health, disappointments, frustration that we are most likely to consider a new path. It is when we are most likely to be willing to hear God. His Holy Spirit becomes more real to us. Prayer becomes more valuable. Sensitivity to other people in a similar situation might be more certain.
Think of the prophet Elijah. God used him marvelously to defeat the false priests of Ahab. He called out and prevented rain for years. BUT-after that victory, he became depressed and afraid. He did not know where to turn. He was confused. His priorities were upside down. His trust in God seem to diminish. In the midst of all that bad, God told him to go to the brook Cherith. There he was fed by the relevant ravens sent by God. Then the ravens the next morning brought bread and flesh in the evening.
God put him back on the road of his ministry. (1 Kings 17) Shortly thereafter, he was instructed to go to a widow who would sustain him thereafter. When he met her, she was gathering sticks. He asked for the water that she fetched. Then he asked for food. But she said she had been a handful of meal in a barrel in a little oil in a cruise and she was planning to fix that for herself and her son as a last meal before they died. What seemed like a selfish request, he asked her to feed him first. As a result, her provisions were reinstated so that she had all the meal and oil that she needed throughout the rest of the drought. Even after this, her son fell ill and died. She rejected his intervention. In a full-blown miracle God used him to raise the boy back to life. It was by this that she was confirmed in her knowledge of who Elijah as a man of God.
With all of the depression, anxiety, fear, and grief that preceded these miracles, much blessing followed. My friend, no one wants to suffer. That of course is an exaggeration of words. Of course no one wants to suffer! No one wants to be disappointed or discouraged. No one wants to go through bad times. Stop to think of it, though, good things in our life accomplish little. They may be blessings. They may be beneficial. However, it is when things are the opposite that we are closer to God, if we allow ourselves. It is when the Bible promises, when prayer becomes more real to us. James 1:2 says, “My brother, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations.” He proceeds further in the chapter to tell us the benefit of what happens for good. He says in verse 12, “all you Blessed is the man that endures temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love him.”
Christian Writer 