Facing Adversity and Being in God’s Will


Saul told his son Jonathan and all the attendants to kill David. 1 Samuel 19:1

 David was minding his own business one day, tending sheep, when God called him to be a king. Talk about a God moment.

 He didn’t ask to be king, but God said he was the one. He turned out to be a great king. Imagine that? God made a good pick! David had a heart modeled after God’s, according to the Bible.

 So, since God had chosen to bless David in such a way, why do we later find Saul trying to kill David?

 In fact, for some time Saul chased David. David hid out, all alone, which is the setting we find him in during the writings of many of the Psalms. David was God’s choice for king and yet he was placed in incredible adversity.

 What does this tell us?

 I think it says to me that sometimes God’s will for us will find us in the middle of trials in life.

 That’s right. His will for our lives.

 More importantly, I am learning that I cannot determine whether I am in God’s will based on whether or not my life is peaceful. Just because I have trials in my life, doesn’t mean I am not in the center of God’s will for my life.

 I love how Alistair Begg once said it.

 “We should not seek to confirm God’s will by the absence of adversity.”

 Think about Biblical characters who faced great trials.

  • Abraham who faced the trial of leaving his homeland, then the years of infertility.
  • Moses wandered in the wilderness forty years.
  • Joseph was sold into slavery.
  • Ruth lost her husband.
  • Nehemiah had to fight off naysayers.
  • Daniel was thrown into a lion’s den.
  • John the Baptist was beheaded.
  • Paul wrote some of his best work in prison.

All of these great servants of God faced persecution, heartache, and trials beyond most of our imaginations. Yet all them, during the adversity, were right where God wanted them to be, in the center of His will.

 Yes, we would all like life to be peaceful. It is true that we can have inner peace and joy even in the middle of the storms of life. But God has not promised us a life free of problems.

 In fact, we can be perfectly within His will and still be facing adversity. It is often through the process of life’s difficulties that God makes us more like Jesus, teaches us more about Him and ourselves.

 Trust Him today, regardless of your circumstances! He is always working a plan!

 - Ron Edmondson

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Help from above

Image
When you hear someone had a misfortune or fell into one type of error, what do you feel for that person? Do you just waive it aside, or say that is good, I warned him or gloat? If you didn't feel this or near it or just feeling of unconcerned has been your reaction, you need to change your mind or repent from such today. It is generally said that if you do not take care, what befell someone in front will befall you, and you do not want that. THEME:  HELP FROM ABOVE Memorise: My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. – Psalm 121:2 Bible Reading: Psalm 121:1-8 (KJV) 1 (A Song of degrees.) I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. 2 My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. 3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. 4 Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand. 6 The sun shall not
Read more

Time of Yearly Stock Taking

Image
This is the last days of the year and appropriate time to do a stocktaking of the year to know if indeed you have succeeded or not. What goals did you set at the beginning of the year? To what extent did you get at fulfilling these goals? Whether you succeeded or not or did you get to achieve a considerable level or not? What really motivated you or distracted you during the course of the tear? Dividing your goals between spiritual or material goals, which one did you succeed at, and will you say there was or is a relationship between the two? Is each of the two mutually exclusive? In real sense of it, neither is mutually exclusive. If you live a life of self-power, self-effort, self-capability, self in all sense, you will certainly tend to evaluate and score only on the earthly or material or physical sense meaning all your efforts, belief and actualisation will be entirely based on your own ability and strength. Whatever you achieved or not during the year or over the
Read more

This is my witty God...Could you have imagined it?

Image
I have reposted a very popular story below just to illustrate the witty, improbable, intelligent and impossible to predict God that we serve...that all creation will serve knowingly or not. God says in Isaiah 55:8 - "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,". During World War 2, a soldier was separated from his unit on an island. The fighting had been intense, and in the smoke and the crossfire he had lost touch with his comrades. Alone in the jungle, he could hear enemy soldiers coming in his direction. Scrambling for cover, he found his way up a high ridge to several small caves in the rock. Quickly he crawled inside one of the caves. Although safe for the moment, he realised that once the enemy soldiers looking for him swept up the ridge, they would quickly search all the caves and he would be killed. As he waited, he prayed, "Lord, please spare my life. Whatever will happen, I love you and trust you. Amen." After pra
Read more

How To Save The Situation!

Image
Every couple should read this: Husband Breaks Down Crying in the Shower—When He Lies in Bed By His Wife, It Suddenly Hits Him By Richard Paul Evans (Dedicated to my sweetheart.) My oldest daughter, Jenna, recently said to me, “My greatest fear as a child was that you and mom would get divorced. Then, when I was 12, I decided that you fought so much that maybe it would be better if you did.” Then she added with a smile. “I’m glad you guys figured things out.” For years, my wife, Keri, and I struggled. Looking back, I’m not exactly sure what initially drew us together, but our personalities didn’t quite match up. And the longer we were married the more extreme the differences seemed. Encountering “fame and fortune” didn’t make our marriage any easier. In fact, it exacerbated our problems. The tension between us got so bad that going out on book tour became a relief, though it seems we always paid for it on re-entry. Our fighting became so constant that it was difficult to ev
Read more

Way of the righteous

Image
Are you righteous? What makes a person righteous? Man has always strived to be righteous. To attain this, we strive to be religious; strive to be good; strive to do right; etc. However, man is inherently evil from the womb. You do not need to teach a child to be selfish, to lie, or to do anything bad. You have to teach a child how to be good. (A rod and a reprimand impart wisdom, but a child left undisciplined disgraces its mother. - Proverbs 29:15 ) That is why the Lord Jesus said no one is good except God. So, are we doomed? In fact, we are. That is where love comes in. God's love for man is so totally awesome that He was compelled by love to redeem us from doom. However, sin cannot be cleansed by any other men's but by shedding of blood. And since only a righteous blood can redeem man from doom, blood of animals cannot as animals are lower than humans. God had to send His only son, Jesus, to die and shed his blood to pay for man's sin and redeem man. After
Read more

Who Do You Really Seek?

Image
Why are you doing what you are doing? Is it for the financial reward or for the love of it? Reward is the opium or energy that propels us to desire or go for or engage in any activity. What are you doing? What is your expected reward? Is it instant reward you are after or time tested reward? For every endeavour, there is a fundamental reward we are all after with a subset of broken down or auxiliary reward. Whatever the reward that drives us in all our endeavours, it is known throughtout the ages that fleeting or instant reward is fraught with high risk and certainly not lasting. However, a time-tested reward outlook is or will be borne out of patience which is a product of proven series of experience. This type of reward is surely more lasting and could actually last across generations. When it comes to spirituality, at most and with a long stretch of improved medicine and imagination, we spend 100 years. After that eternity will be spent where? It is good common sense to seek r
Read more

Who do you belong to and why that matters?

Image
What have we that we were not given? What have you that you were not given? 1 Cor 4:7 - "For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive?... " This is really a true saying. Do you have any part to play in your existence? Did you have any part to play at deciding your gender - male or female? Job 2:10 says "For the life of every living thing is in his hand, and the breath of every human being." (NLT) Since non of us have, why do we still behave as if we own and control everything including our own very lives. We ought to fully internalise this and realise this and allow the Lord to guide and direct our lives, our likes and dislikes, our emotions, our temperament, our hopes and aspirations and how we go about achieving these hopes and aspirations. We all have these aspirations in life but let the God that put these aspirations there guide and direct its actualisation. For, for His pleasure alone should we exist and live.
Read more