The Church of God

Here is the most common question of the day, and perhaps it is the one question that is uppermost in your own mind at this very moment. Maybe sickness had come into your life with its suffering, its expenses and its gnawing uncertainty. Or again, it could be that death has struck your family circle with its own peculiar sorrow. Perhaps it is an accident that has upset your most cherished plans, or family strife that has brought misery and unhappiness into your home. Possibly tragedy, debt or unemployment has shattered your fondest dreams. For some reason or other, you are despondent, worried, nervous and ill. You wonder if life is worth living, and ask yourself, repeatedly, "Why did God let this happen to me?"

It is a good question to ask, and, incidentally, it is the only sane approach to finding the answer to your present difficulty. You could adopt the attitude of bold defiance, of course, and grimly determine to fight against your trials. Or you could just give up with the fatalistic attitude that your troubles are unavoidable anyway. But the best policy is to ask yourself quietly and calmly, "Why did God allow this to come into my life?"

Your first temptation might be to reason that He is punishing you for some sin that you have committed. While this could very possibly be true, it is obviously not the principle reason for your distress. If God's main purpose were punishment, He could have taken your life away altogether. Instead of that, He has purposely extended your life so that your question might be answered.

"Why," you ask, "did this happen to me?"

The answer is that God wants to speak to you. He has tried to speak to you before, but as long as things were going well with you, you weren't interested in listening. He knows that the only way to get your attention is to allow trials to come into your life. He is so interested in you that he is even willing to permit you to suffer for a short time if only as a result you might be made happy forever!

God has four purposes for you in these trials. First of all, He wants you to feel your need for help. Secondly, He wants you to realize your inability to help yourself. Again, He wants you to abandon all hope of obtaining relief from your fellow men. Finally, He wants you to cast yourself on Him and ask Him to save you.

You see, if you had died before now, you would have been lost throughout all eternity. Your sins have never been forgiven, and because of this, you would have been barred from Heaven forever.

But God does not want you to perish. In order that He might have an honorable way of forgiving your sins, He sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die on the cross of Calvary. Christ died for ungodly sinners so that they might be forgiven. Three days after His burial, the Savior rose again, and then some time later, He went back to Heaven, where He is at this very moment, waiting to save you.

Now here is the message that God is trying to make you understand. If you will acknowledge your sins and receive the Son of God as your Lord and Savior, He will forgive your sins and give you eternal life in Heaven. He has definitely promised this in His Word, the Holy Bible, and He cannot go back on His promise.

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life" (John 6: 47). The great question which you must face now is this, "Will I or will I not open the door of my heart and welcome the Lord as my Savior?"

If you refuse Him, you will only go out to face further sorrow and disappointment in this life, and everlasting woe in the next.

If you receive Him, you will be given strength to bear every trial and testing on earth, and will be guaranteed unending joy in Heaven.

No matter how severe your troubles are just now, they would be well worth every throbbing pain, every falling tear and every crushing heartache if they were the means of bringing you to Christ. You would then say with the Psalmist David: "It is good for me that I have been afflicted... for in my distress I cried unto the Lord and He heard me" (Psalms 119:71; 120:1)

Whatever then your problem may be, make it a stepping stone to Christ.