Where is God in my life? Where is Jesus Christ in my adversity? How does God’s Sovereignty play a part in Christians who are suffering?
Where is Jesus when you’re on the phone with a bill collector, and you get angry at their arrogant, sarcastic, nasty tone of voice that would test the patience of any Christian? What about when your ex is putting extra restrictions on you for visitation this weekend, which was already agreed upon last week? Where is Jesus when the man in the car beside you just extended a less than kind gesture out the window, after you accidentally cut him off? What about that bank account, which is dwindling, making it difficult for you to buy tonight’s dinner? What about illness? An all too common question is: “Where is God in my life?”
On a stage, actors have scripts, giving them line by line instructions on what to say and do for the entirety of the play. Lighting is preplanned, and the scene is thought out to the last detail. This is not the script we are take with us daily. Surprises pop up, but when they’re not wanted, they’re called problems. As humans, we are reactive by nature. We don’t know what will happen next, so we have no forethought of how we will respond to that man who just treated us with the utmost disrespect. We don’t ever know what’ll happen next.
Life gets in the way of our responsibilities, relationships, plans, and even prayer. What are we to do? And why is it that when these things arise, and after we’ve had enough, we automatically ask ourselves, “Where is God in my life? Why isn’t He making it stop?”
At that very moment, ask yourself just how long Jesus has been watching what you’re going through. Do you think He has just stepped on the scene, coming in from a break? Do you think He wasn’t watching all along? That split second that caused you to think of Him and question, do you think you came up with that thought on your own? How did that thought get planted there? What is leading you to ask these questions which are based on your daily struggles?
Now that you’ve seen all the questions and experiences that we go through daily, it is wise to remind yourself that God’s Providence is a lot more powerful than you might think. It is alive, and it is very real. While you are driving down the road, and a car in front of you is driving slower than molasses, maybe it’s possible that the Lord slowed him down for a reason, to protect you from that deer that God was leading to food 18 seconds ahead, right in your path. Maybe that woman that yelled at you on the phone will feel badly about what she’s done, and God will bring her to the prayer of her life tonight. Maybe that death you just heard about which was unexpected and seems so unfair needed to happen, in order that Christ could come a little sooner than we thought, and save us from this life on earth. Maybe the moment you lost your best friend to a car accident was the moment God needed that person performing special missions in heaven. Is it impossible to accept that we as humans are not taking into account that God holds all the cards? Is it possible that every single step on earth leads to one in God’s foreordained heavenly city?
When you read a post on social media that annoys you, followed by the kids acting up and the bills piling high, one thing is certain. You’re going to slip into a bad mood, and fast. Your significant other comes home to be snapped at, and an argument may break out. No one wins, and at the end of the day you’ve had it. “Why me,” you ask. “Why aren’t you listening?”
Jesus sees all. He can orchestrate events from one to the next, at all places and at all times. He can allow the devil to attack. He is not the author of evil, but He can allow it on His time clock, for His own purpose. What is His purpose in all this allowing of affliction?
The bible said it would happen. The apostles, the prophets, and Christ Himself spoke of these things as very real, not to be ignored. He that says “He is not coming. My Master is delaying” will be he that turns out to be the unfaithful servant, and the one who saw more clearly the things of earth than the things of heaven. These temptations would be promised to vanish only after a period, and that period would be when Christ comes on the cloud, with the sound of a trumpet. We would not see things get better in completion. We would continue to see these trials and tribulations until Christ says, “I have come”. What we are instructed to do in the meantime is to recognize when God may be working behind the scenes, and recognize His mighty power. To question Him and His Sovereign ways in the midst of our troubles is to assume He doesn’t know what He’s doing. To wonder if He is there at all is to doubt the very creation of existence. If He were not there, there would be no miracles. There would be no coincidences that worked out for good. There would be no love, no giving, no faith in anything, no goodness left at all, because God is the author of these things, which can be imparted only by His Spirit. If one were to assume God didn’t exist, one should never expect another fine thing in this life, lest they assume that miracles happen by chance alone, and not by Sovereign power.
Stop and think the next time you wonder where God is. Trust that He knows exactly what He’s doing, and He will bring you out of this darkness at just the right time, when He says it’s just the right moment. You may not see it happen at first. Look back on your life to recall tragic events or misfortune that you faced. Did you see the exact moment that God brought you out of it? Did you cause the suffering to end? Or, did the Sovereignty of God act in your favor once again, as it has since the day you were born? Learn to trust in God without question, and you have mastered one of the greatest mysteries of all time.