Hope, when it

hurts
“…if we hope for what we see not, then do we with patience wait for it,”
“…if it,” Romans
8:25
Maybe you’ve been at the end of your rope in life, and in a moment of
desperation, have cried up to Heaven, “GOD, WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME”?
Ready for a shocker? He isn’t. Never has and He won’t start now.
But many believe that God is the door keeper - and sometimes instigator -
of every bad thing that happens to us. Those who believe that God is the
“cosmic killjoy” explain the reason God hurts us is so He can then step in
to comfort us. Could God possibly be both brutalizer and helper of
mankind at the same time? This may be how a pimp deals with his street
girls, but it is not an accurate portrayal of the God of the Bible. Don’t
believe it for a minute! If you’re believing this theology, you’re
depriving yourself of the hope that the good news of Jesus Christ offers.
If you’re spreading this wrong message around to others, then you’re also
depriving others of the real hope offered in the good news of Christ.
“But GOD who is WEALTHY IN MERCY wherewith HIS GREAT LOVE with which He LOVED
us,” Eph 2:4
The Bible presents a very different picture of God. The Bible presents a
God who is of perfect integrity, incapable of doing evil and generous
beyond measure. The Bible presents a God who can always be trusted.
Though what we see in life might tell us otherwise, the Bible presents a
God so infinite in love, He delivered His Son up for us all - to die for
our sins and rise out from death. God is not the cause of our problems
but is the Savior in the midst of our trials and the only Savior for our
future. It is in this truth, that every single person can turn to God for
hope. Hope during the most difficult problem. So if all the troubles in
life do not come from God, where do they come from? Let’s look to the
only source of truth we have, the Holy Bible.
“… by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin,” Romans 5:12a,b,c
When God created the world, the Bible declares, everything He made was
“good” - but then something happened that changed everything. What
happened? One event in human history: “sin entered the world.” How did
sin enter? By one man”, the Bible answers.
“…By “What is sinful about
eating a piece of fruit?” you ask. When Adam disobeyed God’s simple
command, he was shaking his fist into the Heaven of the all-wise, all
loving Creator. God is not the problem. We are! Do you believe it? I
do. And “Death
Death (came) by sin,” the Bible teaches us. The moment after
Adam sinned, he died spiritually and physical death awaited him. Every
problem in this life owes it’s existence to that one event in our history.
Before sin and death entered, there was no sickness, no disease, no
famine, no hatred, no violence and no disappointment.
“and so death spread to all men, for that all have sinned,” Romans 5:12d
After sin entered, death and it’s consequences came in as an enemy
invader, 1 Cor 15:26. The Bible teaches that when Adam sinned, we all
sinned. We didn’t become sinners when we sinned our first sin. We sin
because we are sinners. What resulted from the entrance of sin is that
every person was now born a sinner, spiritually dead to God, alienated
from His life, Eph 2:1-3. Death,
Death our enemy, spread to all men and all of
us are death’s captives and subjects. And death remains our enemy and
captor today.
“But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it,”
it,”
Romans 8:24, 25
But the good news is that Christ, who knew no sin, absorbed death for us
when He died and rose from the dead 2000 years ago. In sending His Son to
die and rise, God has solved our death problem. All who believe in Christ
are reconciled to God now and promised a future deliverance. Upon death or
rapture, every believer will be instantly delivered from the bondage of
corruption, both moral and physical, Rom 8:22, 23. God has allowed the
problems we all experience (resulting from the entrance of sin), so that
we would not hope in ourselves or our circumstances, but hope in God.
Though we don’t see our deliverance, we have the privilege of looking
forward to something infinitely better. And this hope turns our hearts
towards God and is the reason we can cheerfully endure any problem in
life. info@gracemeeting.com