“This is what the LORD says: Do not go up to fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Go home, every one of you, for this is my doing.'” So they obeyed the word of the LORD and went home again, as the LORD had ordered.1 King 12:24 “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?” Psalm 22:1
I struggled with many titles for this piece of article .”When God is behind your troubles and predicaments.” Or “The other side of God” Or “When God will not answer your prayers.”Or “Do we really understand God moves?” Or “The technicalities of God’s sovereignty.”
God pampers us so much like a mother pampers his children always that we have grown to believe that God will always do things that will make us emotionally happy or positive. The Holy Spirit taught me this morning that in God’s sovereignty he is not bound to do the things that will always please you but will advance his kingdom on earth and accomplish his purposes. He also made me understand that he chooses how to answer our prayers. More so that you cannot totally understand his mind beyond what he chooses to reveal or make you to understand. The hardship you are going through sometimes is not Satan-engineered but God-planned, executed, sponsored and financed. That God does not just rubber stamp your prayers because you have said it- God is Sovereign.
Let us look at three scenarios and how it can apply to you .
1. Rehoboam loses 80% of his kingdom to his potent enemy Jeroboam. 10 of the 12 tribes follow Jeroboam and said- “to your tent o Israel” For those who are ministers, God can use anybody to scatter your supposed ministry. You can have a church membership of 1000 in the morning and have 200 at the end of the day. Your subordinate can be used to deplete membership. A Pastor in Providence, Rhode Island suffered it, his associate took away 520 members out of 600. He suffered a stroke. You don’t have to. Sometimes your friend may be the one to take your spouse and God could be behind it and you suddenly become a single parent, continue living your life.
2. Job’s multiple losses! Job 1:1-21. Job lost children, business empire and health. “But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.12 And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord.” Job 1:11-12
Job lost ten children and the “ richest in East became the poorest and with great affliction“
Can you explain why God who Satan confessed has built hedges around Job suddenly allow Satan to have access to him? What do you do when calamity strikes and God is behind it and you have not committed sin? No one prays for children to die. What do you do when you lose all your children in car or fire accident or plane crash? What do you do when the booming business suddenly diminishes? We’ve seen stock value go down by 80%. Is God unaware of global inflation and recession? In “Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe “ Okonkwo borrowed 800 yam tuber seeds and that year was the greatest drought in the farmland, he lost all the yam seeds. Job helped us to know what to do when God allows Satan to buffet us- He said, “I came naked from my mother’s womb, and I will be naked when I leave. The LORD gave me what I had, and the LORD has taken it away. Praise the name of the LORD!” Job 1: 21 The wife encouraged him to curse God he refused. He said if you can take the good stuff from God be prepared to take bad stuff occasionally! Don’t run away from that marriage, business, school church because of the challenges -God is up to something!
3. Samson pursues immoral women against parental advice. “Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well.4 But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the Lord, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.” Judges 14 :3-4.
By his grace, we have five daughters of marriageable age. I counsel them to choose well, I support them in prayers but I am not the one that makes the choices for them. Sometimes our children may not marry our perfect choice. As Canadians will say, it’s okay. The Bible says God may have a purpose for that “ imperfect son or daughter in-law”
What the Holy Spirit is saying is that “God may have behind the scene moves” in the choice of life partners. What the young ones should do is seek the face of God before marriage, parental counsel is vital but they are not to make the final choice. Maybe God is behind that your child’s relationship that you’re giving yourself sleepless nights over. Same for their choice of career. Choice of where they want to live, the country, the city, the school . Maybe you want him to become a lawyer, medical doctor, and he she says he wants to become DJ or actor. I was at a function recently and the daughter of a prominent lawyer was performing as a dancer!
Conclusion: When God turned from Jesus on the cross, it was painful to him bodily but it was to allow him to redeem mankind from sin and eternal destruction. God may allow you to suffer some measure temporarily- to use you to accomplish his greater purpose. This piece is not to give you an impression that God is behind all your predicaments or your life choices or styles but to help you know that being a Christian does not mean everything will be a bed of roses or that you are untouchable by Satans antics, albeit with God’s permission but to encourage you that in all situations move on, keep serving God, keep blessing God. We cannot fully understand God and there are questions about God we will only get answers to on the other side of eternity.
Shalom◦
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O taste and see that the Lord is good.(Psalm 34:8). I have tasted and found that the Lord is good. I do testify that the Lord is good.Join me to taste him.
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