Sometimes life stinks. Bad things happen, frustrating
things happen, and things that just don’t make any sense happen. For some
people, life stinks because of the consequences of a poor decision on their
part. For example, I would assume that being in prison stinks, and the vast
majority of people who end up in prison are there due to poor decisions to
disregard the law. For other, life may stink due to a decision that someone
else made that impacts the person even though they personally did nothing wrong.
For example, if a wife is doing everything right (not saying she’s perfect, but
you know what I mean), and the husband cheats on her. She didn’t do the action,
but she is hurt by it. Other times the pain and hardships are due to the fact
that we live in a world filled with war, strife, sickness, and death. None of
this is a new thing. Hard times have been happening ever since Adam and Eve
were kicked out of the Garden of Eden (a result of their actions – it hurt them
in the short term, and the rest of the world in the long term).
The Bible is full of people who endured hardships, and
like us, some responded well and others not so much. In 1 Kings 18-19, the
Bible tells the story of Elijah. 1 Kings 19:4 says, “But he himself went a
day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree.
And he prayed that he might die, and said, “It is enough! Now, Lord, take my
life, for I am no better than my fathers!”” Elijah was a prophet of God, yet he
was feeling so down that he asked God to just let him die. He had done the
right things and obeyed God, and as a result of his obedience, he ticked off
the King and Queen of Israel, Ahab and Jezebel. Jezebel threatened his life,
and that’s when he ran to the wilderness and wanted to die.
King David was a man after God’s own heart. Before becoming the king, he was a shepherd.
He was ridiculed by his older brothers. King Saul, who was king before David,
tried multiple times to kill him. He lost a child as a punishment for his sin
with Bathsheba. (At the time when the child was conceived, Bathsheba was
married to someone else. When Bathsheba told David that she was pregnant with
his child, David had her husband killed.) Later on, another son of David’s
revolted against his father and caused David to have to flee. Some of the
hardships were consequences of David’s actions, but some were completely out of
his control. David wrote much of the book of Psalms and in Psalm 28:1-2 he
wrote:
1 To You I will cry, O Lord my Rock:
Do not be silent to me,
Lest, if You are silent to me,
I become like those who go down to the pit.
2 Hear the voice of my supplications
When I cry to You,
When I lift up my hands toward Your holy sanctuary.
In Genesis 37 and 39, the Bible tells of Joseph. Joseph’s
brothers were jealous that Joseph was their father’s favorite son from his favorite
wife and sold him into slavery. He made the best of it and worked hard and
became the head servant of Potiphar. Potiphar’s wife made improper advances and
Joseph didn’t just tell her no, he ran from her and the temptation that she
offered. She was not happy about being rejected, so she lied to her husband
saying that Joseph had been the aggressor, and Joseph was thrown into jail.
In the book of Job, Satan was talking to God about Job.
He accused Job of being faithful to God only because his life was going well.
God allowed Satan to destroy all of Job’s possessions and kill all of his
children. All that Job had left was his wife and a few friends. Eventually all
of them turned on Job. Job 2:9 says, “Then his wife said to him, “Do you still
hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!”” He lost everything and his
wife told him there was no point in him living anymore. He refused to curse
God, but thought that death would bring him relief from the pain. Job 6:8-9
says, ““Oh, that I might have my request, that God would grant me the thing
that I long for!
9 That it would please God to crush me, that He would
loose His hand and cut me off!”
The prophet Jeremiah wrote the book of Lamentations. This
book was a poem about the pain he felt about the destruction of Jerusalem and
God’s punishment His people. He wasn’t one of the ones that turned away from
God and worshipped idols. He obeyed God, yet he was punished for the sins of
the people. Lamentations 3:6-8 says:
6 He has set me in dark places
Like the dead of long ago.
7 He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out;
He has made my chain heavy.
8 Even when I cry and shout,
He shuts out my prayer.
17 You have moved my soul far from peace;
I have forgotten prosperity.
Life was difficult for Jeremiah, and he felt like his
prayers weren’t being heard.
While Jesus was on earth, some of His friends were three
siblings – Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. While Jesus was ministering elsewhere, He
received word that Lazarus was sick and dying. By the time He got to Bethany
where they lived, Lazarus had been dead for several days. John 11:21 says, “Now
Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have
died.”” She knew Jesus could have healed him, but now her brother was dead.
Those were people who were prophets, people who were
close to God, and personal friends of Jesus, yet they struggled just like we
do. I would guess that everyone could relate to at least one of them. We’ve
felt like peace was hard to find. We’ve questioned if God is even hearing out
prayers. We’ve done the right thing and obeyed God, but hardship has still come
into our lives. Those closest to us have turned their backs on us. We’ve been
betrayed and stabbed in the back. We have questioned why God, who is able to
heal or prevent tragedy, allowed loved ones to die. We’ve been in dark places
and questioned if life is even worth living anymore. The people in the Bible
experienced times when life was hard, and thousands of years later, we’re still
having similar experiences. Thankfully the Bible tells the full stories of the
people I used as examples. The hard times were just part of their stories, not
the end of them.
God sent an angel to minister to Elijah and feed him.
Then Elijah went into a cave, and God sent a mighty wind, an earthquake, and a
fire, but He was in none of those. Then He spoke to Elijah with a still, small
voice. He told Elijah to go down off the mountain. He brought Elijah a helper
in the ministry and told him of others who still followed after the one, true
God. Elijah had previously felt alone, but God filled that void. Jezebel’s
threat to kill Elijah never came to pass, and both she and Ahab were killed. Elijah,
however, never died. When his time on earth was done, God sent a chariot of
fire to take him straight to Heaven.
David’s life story was one of highs and lows, but even in
the midst of the hard times, he clung to God’s promises. Psalm 28:7 says, “The
Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped; therefore
my heart greatly rejoices, and with my song I will praise Him.” Earlier in the
same chapter he begged God not to be silent and to hear his prayers, and he was
comforted and acknowledge that God gives him strength and protection. The book
of Psalms is full of passages that bring comfort in difficult times.
Psalm 34:18 The Lord is near to those who have a broken
heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit.
Psalm 55:22 Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall
sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.
Psalm 23:1-3 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me
beside the still waters.
3 He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of
righteousness for His name’s sake.
Even when we are the most broken inside, He restores our
souls. When we’ve messed up, He forgives us. Yes, there will still be
consequences for our actions, but God will be with us and will not give up on
us.
Even in jail, Joseph still trusted God. He worked hard
serving the other prisoners and found favor in the eyes on the jail keeper. He
could have curled up and had a pity party about how unfair his life was. Most
of what happened to him wasn’t his fault, yet there he was, a slave in jail.
But then it all turned around. God used something as commonplace as dreams to
get Joseph out of jail. Next thing he knew, he was the advisor to the Pharaoh
of Egypt. From a slave in jail to 2nd in command in Egypt because of
dreams. God can use anything, no matter how small or big, to take care of us.
The story doesn’t end there. A horrible famine came over the whole region and
because of Joseph’s wise, God-given advice, Egypt was prepared for it. People
from other countries came to seek food, and Joseph’s brothers were some of
those people. He could have been bitter at them or even had them killed, but he
chose to forgive them and help them. God used Joseph’s trials to bring him to
the place where He needed him to save both Egypt and his own family, but none
of that would have happened had Joseph not trusted God even when he was in some
of the worst circumstances.
Job did not listen to his wife and friends who gave him
bad advice. He acknowledged that even though bad things had happened to him
that God was still good. He also prayed for the friends who had given him such
a hard time. God eventually restored everything he’d lost and then some. He had
more children and his wealth was doubled. That isn’t to say that if we’re going
through tough times financially that God will make us rich. The Bible never
says that. It does say that God knows our needs and will take care of us. Like
Job, our lives may not always make sense. Bad things happen, our health fails,
and our friends turn out not to be as good of friends as we thought. We may not
understand, but we can trust that God has a plan and can work things out for
His purpose. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward
you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and
a hope.” Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that all things work together for good
to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
Lamentations 3 did not stop with Jeremiah being hopeless.
The situation for his country was dire, but He knew that God would never abandon
them. Lamentations 3:22-26 says:
22 Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because
His compassions fail not.
23 They are new every morning; great is Your
faithfulness.
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I
hope in Him!”
25 The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the
soul who seeks Him.
26 It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for
the salvation of the Lord.
His compassions never fail. I hope in Him. What a comfort
to know that God will always take care of us. Even when things seem bleak, He
is in control and is compassionate and merciful.
Mary and Martha were grieving the loss of their brother
when Jesus arrived. Even though they wished that Jesus had arrived sooner and
healed their brother before he died, they still trusted Jesus. Jesus ended up
raising their brother from the dead. Even before raising Lazarus, He told his
disciples that He was glad that He had not been there so that they could
believe. The disciples had already seen Jesus heal people, but this was the
first time that they would see someone come back to life. Jesus showed them
that He had power over death itself. While we may not have our loved ones
brought back from the dead, if they believe in Jesus and his salvation, death
is not the end. John 11:25-26 says, “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection
and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And
whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”” 2
Corinthians 5:6-8 says, “So we are always confident, knowing that while we are
at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by
sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body
and to be present with the Lord.” We may not understand why God chooses to take
our loved ones when He does, but we have the hope that we will see them again
one day. Yes, here on earth there is a hole in our family or circle of friends
where that person used to be, and that hurts. Like Mary and Martha, we prayed
so hard and had faith that God could heal a sick relative, but they died
anyway. Did God not hear our prayers? Jesus heard the prayers of Mary and
Martha, yet he allowed Lazarus to die. Their plan was not His plan. It’s hard
when the answer to our prayers is “no”, but we can trust that God has a plan
even if we don’t understand it. We mourn the loss of a loved one when they are
taken to Heaven, but compared to eternity, our time on earth – and our time
without the loved one here on earth – is relatively short, and then we will be
together again in a place with no tears, no loss, no sickness, and no death.
I’ve been through difficult times in my life. Times when
I couldn’t see the light at the end of a very dark tunnel. I’ve asked God why
He allowed people I loved to die, why He allowed things to happen to me and to
people I love, why He put me in circumstances that I didn’t like. I’ve been in
dark places like Jeremiah talked about in Lamentations 3:6. I’ve cried myself
to sleep. But through it all, God has been faithful. In the Old Testament, when
God would bring His people through difficult times, he would have them erect a
monument so that when later generations saw it, they would ask why it was there
and would hear the story of how God took care of His people. We can’t always
control what happens in our lives, but we can control how we respond. When hard
times come, we can either become bitter or we can look back and see how God has
comforted us and provided for us in the part. We can trust that he will do the
same in our future. Looking back on my life to this point, I can see the times
when God brought me through the tough times. No, I don’t always respond as I
should immediately, but I come around after I’ve had time to process things.
Psalm 30:5b says, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the
morning.” Hard times come and happiness comes and goes based on external
circumstances, but joy is something God gives us that even the worst
circumstances can’t take away unless we let them. My friends, I pray that you
choose to hold onto that joy and not to let bitterness take hold and steal that
joy. God is good all the time and has a plan for your life, even when things
don’t make sense, and even when life hurts.
