Last week, in my women’s study, we posed the question, “do we credit God with the outcome when the circumstances didn’t go our way and praise Him just the same?” My heart is often geared toward the glory of God’s sovereignty and goodness when things haven’t turned out great, because the world ideology suggests that when things go badly, it’s because God isn’t good, and when things go well it’s because He is only love and just wants our happiness. There is also a connection drawn between reward and punishment. When things go good for us, then it must mean God is pleased. When things go bad, it must mean that He is displeased.

If only good things happen when we serve faithfully, it would reaffirm that since we’ve served faithfully that we are being rewarded. But, what happens when we face a trial in the midst of serving faithfully? Does this mean that somehow we’ve gotten it wrong, and that God is displeased? If someone isn’t pursuing the Lord at all, living in sin, but by all appearances living a thriving and blessed life, how does that complicate our view of a God that has some sort of incentive program for the living?

The problem isn’t with God at all, rather it’s with our limited perspective. The trials of this world are a result of sin, introduced into the world by Satan, and everyone is subject to the problems of the world whether we are born again in Christ or not. It stands to reason that God’s mercy extends then to all who live on the earth in the form of life itself, sustenance, and any pleasurable thing at all.

The Bible says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17). Every person alive has the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of a sunset, the ability to taste a delicious meal, to smell the wildflowers bloom in spring, and participate in the daily mercies of a loving God whose will it is that none should perish (2 Peter 3: 8-10), the difference is that for the unredeemed man (or woman), this world is the closest to Heaven it gets. For the redeemed, this world is the closest to Hell we’ll ever get. What the world fails to realize is that it is the love of God that He is just and will one day separate sin, death, and suffering from the eternal state, but in doing so, anyone who has not accepted Christ will not have access to Him in eternity. In choosing to face God apart from Christ you have chosen to receive His righteous condemnation for a sin debt that you can’t pay for on your own. Because He is holy and will remove all sin, your presence will be removed from Him eternally if your unrighteous state has not covered by the righteous blood of Christ. We are all born into sin, from the point that Eve, and Adam with her, chose their desire over God’s command and sin entered the world, everyone born after was born owing a debt that couldn’t be paid. A loving God will not allow sin to reign forever. It is both His love and His judgement for sin that make up equal parts of His character. Yet, His love is demonstrated to us in this, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).

When we fail to recognize God’s hand in the daily mercies and as a means of drawing us nearer to Him through the trials, we don’t rob Him of glory, He is worthy of glory and will receive it regardless, we rob ourselves of the grace to be able to participate in the right worship of His glory. Jesus said, in response to being told to silence His followers from praising Him, “If they are silent, even the rocks will cry out” (Luke 19:40). We’re told in Psalm 19:1, “the heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows his handiwork.” Evidence of God’s glory is all around us and when we fail to see Him in every aspect of our daily lives we rob ourselves of the knowledge of God.

We recognize His glory, His handiwork, through the daily pursuit of Him. The closer we walk the more ready our hearts are prepared to worship Him through all circumstances, good and bad. We recognize the suffering brought upon us is a result of sin, that death, disease, and sin are products of the enemy, not of God. While these things are the result of the enemy, God still uses them to accomplish His good and perfect will so that even our suffering isn’t purposeless. The Bible says that, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). He is powerful enough to bring beauty from ashes.

Jesus knew that the consequence of sin being introduced into the world was death. He came to solve the problem of our sin. Today is the day of salvation. If you haven’t received the gift of Jesus’ death and resurrection, turn to Him today. We will still face death as believers, the physical death of our earthly body, but we will not experience the second death. As believers we die once, but without Christ we die twice, once in our earthly bodies and again spiritually at the judgement. Revelation 21:8 tells us, “As for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Come to the saving knowledge of Jesus today.

God bless.