"Where is God when troubles come?"

I think they spiked my McDonald's chicken sandwich--I need to go to sleep. Thought I might throw this up first. It is something I wrote a few weeks back that I found in my desk drawer. Any questions, comments, possible concerns?

Where is God when troubles come?

“How long, O Lord, must I call for help?”
People have this cozy little idea that if you’re a Christian, then life is perfect. They’re wrong. Jesus never said he’d take away all our problems and troubles; in fact, while we hail him as the Prince of Peace, he readily admitted, “Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I have come to bring strife and division! From now on families will be split apart, three in favor of me, and two against… There will be a division between father and son, mother and daughter, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.” Atheists often think that Christianity is an escape-route for those too wimpy to face a hard life; it’s the other way around! Don’t be fooled; when you accept Jesus into your life, evil forces against Jesus then turn against you, work against you, do everything they can to pull you away from God. And—here we go—troubles are born.
Everyone experiences troubles. Christians seem to get the dirty end of the stick a lot. But while their worlds are turned upside-down, Christians possess a fiery joy that unbelievers can’t explain. That joy is knowing God is with us. There are no ‘fun’ times of trouble; it’s nerve-wracking, heart breaking, painful—sometimes excruciatingly painful. Troubles can range from anywhere to being punished for someone else’s mistake, to being hit by a drunk driver; it can be as painful as your little baby nephew dying in the hospital room for no apparent reason. The list goes on and on, some seemingly more drastic than others. If you’re looking for an escape-hatch, some impervious way to get away from all the trouble, you’ll be looking for a while, but you’ll never find one! Satan is never done fighting against our souls here on earth, not until we die. From birth to death, all Christians are hated by Satan and fought against.
A while back I made the mistake of accusing God for my problems, blaming him for a series of events that seriously rattled my character. This period—I deem it the “dark period” of my life—was dotted with tears, heartbreak, sorrow, and even contemplations of suicide. I was a newcomer to Christ, and almost immediately Satan got to work. For about half a year I struggled, fought, had my battles; some I won, others I lost. My world was turned upside-down. And I always accused God for what was happening; I didn’t realize it at the time, but Satan was pulling me away from God. His little trap was working. But then I picked up my Bible and started reading Job…
Job is a book about when life stinks. Seriously. It’s not about rampant sin, or the justice of God, but more so attacks the ever-present question, “Where are you, God, when my life bites?” Job was a righteous man, a devoted follower of God; God blessed him with land, a prosperous farm, wealth, several children and a loving wife. Satan comes along, and tells God that Job can be broken; so God says, “All right, do what you want to him, just don’t kill him,” knowing Job would never turn away. Almost immediately it seemed God had turned his back on Job—his land became worthless, all his livestock died, his house burnt to the ground, he lost all his money, and all his kids were killed. He was stricken with disease, his body ravaged to the brink of death—but he was not killed. His wife became bitter towards him, and his friends abandoned him, falsely accusing him to his face. Job literally had no one left; and he complained to God. He wanted to know why everything had changed; he was so wracked with pain, he begged God to take his own life. He wanted to know, “Why me? Why don’t you stop what’s happening to me? Why aren’t you helping?” This hit home—these were the same questions I was asking, except I was blaming God for it all—“…Job did not sin by blaming God.”
Why me?
Why don’t you stop what’s happening to me?
What are the answers?

Why Me?
We’re all guilty of feeling like we’ve got the dirty end of the stick, and we’ve all felt it more than once. Again, everyone experiences troubles, and chances are, the troubles you’re going through aren’t too different than the ones everyone else goes through. When life flat-out sucks, we demand to know why it’s us who are being beaten by life! Why are we the ones who have to suffer? Well, let me ask you this: why not you? What have you done to gain superior status over everyone else? There are five major reasons troubles pop into our lives, three reasons why it is us:
1. Random trouble—perhaps a disease is spreading, you catch the disease, and you’re bed-stricken and you miss the Ohio State-Michigan game on TV. You want to know why you had to listen to the game on the radio while belching into a trash can, and all your friends went to the football game and won a thousand dollars by sitting in the right seat (tough chance). In this case, there may not be any real reason for you getting sick. The disease is spreading, you caught it just because you were there when it swept by. Random troubles can be as small as a burning cold or as large as a friend’s mom dying from cancer, or your boyfriend leaving you because he spots another girl he likes better. But while it’s random, it doesn’t mean God doesn’t care—he does care; more on this in a second.
2. Attention Grabber—“But by means of their suffering, [God] rescues those who suffer. For he gets their attention through adversity.” When we want to get someone’s attention, we don’t whisper; we YELL! In the same way, God “yells” at us to get our attention. For what purpose he has for getting our undivided attention varies from person to person, but a common theme is to shout, “Hey! Look! Why did you turn so evil so fast? I want you back, I want you back now. But it’s your decision.” And he uses suffering to get our attention. “Turn back from evil, for it was to prevent you from getting into a life of evil that God sent this suffering.”
3. Discipline—“As you endure… discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Whoever heard of a child who was never disciplined? If God doesn’t discipline you as he does all his children, it means you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all.” Would a loving father let his kid get away with stealing the car and not discipline him at all? No. In the same way, when we sin, a lot of times God will send stuff our way to teach us a lesson. It is in this way that God is trying to draw us closer to him—he wants to show us what we did wrong, and to convince us not to do it again! God cares enough about us to send us trouble to teach us a lesson that very well may ring in eternity.
4. Troubles from decisions—if you go and get drunk then get behind the wheel of a car, wreck your car through an intersection, killing the other driver, you’ve brought the troubles of being paralyzed, convicted of manslaughter and the possibility of a ruined life all on yourself. In this form of trouble, it is our own decisions that bring the troubles that dot our lives. If you have unprotected premarital sex, and contract HIV or other STDs, whose fault is it? It’s important to remember that while it’s our own fault, God still cares.
5. Troubles from Satan—as mentioned, Satan—the direct enemy of God—wants to turn us from God, wants to rip us from Jesus. He will pound us with troubles to try and shatter our faith. A lot of times these troubles come in the form of temptation to sin. God understands, for even Jesus went through temptation!

But no matter what the trouble, God cares. “…it is wrong to say God doesn’t listen, to say the Almighty isn’t concerned. And it is even more false to say he doesn’t see what is going on. He will bring about justice if you will only wait.” God:
1) Listens
2) Cares (is concerned)
3) Knows what’s going on
4) Will make everything work out for good!

It is easy to think that because God doesn’t answer prayers, he isn’t listening. However, he does listen. It’s wrong to think he doesn’t care what we’re going through, because he does. It’s a lie to believe he isn’t aware of all the facts (maybe you aren’t?), because—above all else—he understands the problem at hand! And God has the beautiful touch of making things work out for good in the end. When God is on our side, things somehow work out for the best in the end—we just have to have patience and wait.

Why doesn’t God stop what’s happening to me?
On June 6, 1944, Allied forces invaded Normandy. Landing Craft flung up against the shore and unloaded soldiers onto the beaches; several of the boats were blown apart or sunk by enemy planes or German machinegun fire. The allies were pinned down by continuous gunfire; friends watched as their friends were slaughtered by the bullets crisscrossing the sky, plinking into the sand, pinging off the steel twists called hedgehogs. It was deemed the Longest Day by both the Allies and the Axis; hundreds upon hundreds of men were killed, not just on the beaches but as the men pressed inward. The horrors replay in the minds of the survivors. One of the survivors was a chaplain by the name of Burkhalter; he was in the first wave against the beaches, and saw many of his comrades killed; he believes his escape was a sheer miracle. On that beach, under the gunfire of the German Army, Burkhalter was pinned down, and he made his way forward, Bible in his pocket and M1 in his hands. Some say war can shatter a man’s faith in God; but Burkhalter reminisces, “Yes, there were a lot of miracles on the beach that day. God was on the beach D-Day…”
How is it, that in the chaos of war and bloodshed, maybe the greatest of troubles, that one can find God? A couple months ago I went searching in my heart for some answers—this search led me to the realization that God is more awesome than I know. And because of that “dark moment of the soul,” I became aware of how God uses trouble in our lives. Troubles bring us closer to God; they force us to lean completely on him. They are God’s tools for drawing us into a deeper relationship with him. Just as Burkhalter grew closer to God on the Normandy beaches, on the Longest Day, so I grew closer to God as I leaned on him for everything in my own times of need.
Why doesn’t God stop the troubles that pain us if he loves us so much?
Because troubles draw us close to him, and that’s where we need to be!
Troubles also help to conform our character to be like Jesus.
No matter what troubles are in your life—whether a crumbling boyfriend/girlfriend relationship, or struggling with a certain sin, or bearing the coming—or already came—death of a loved one, God is there with you. Just as he was on the beaches when the Allies landed, so he is with you in your day-to-day life. Don’t give up on God; pray, tell him how you feel, know he cares, know he understands, and be patient. And remember: sometimes our troubles aren’t really troubles at all; what a loss it was for Jesus to die on the cross, but how the disciples’ mind-sets changed when their Savior was walking down the street, resurrected from the dead! God can—and will—work through our troubles, if we only keep following him and don’t give up.
Want to get serious with understanding problems? Read the book of Job or Habakkuk.

Troubles are certain. We all go through them, and they won’t end till we meet Jesus face-to-face in the Kingdom of Heaven. How we approach the un-stoppable problems is completely up to us!
1. Everyone faces troubles constantly: you are not alone
2. Don’t blame God for your problems
3. Remember there are five major reasons for trouble: I) Random trouble, II) Attention Grabber, III) Discipline, IV) troubles we bring on ourselves, V) troubles from Satan
4. God listens, God cares, God understands, and God will work things out for good.
5. God is there with us through the worst of situations
6. God can use troubles to draw us closer to Him
7. “Can anything separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if he have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted or are hungry or cold or in danger or threatened with death?…No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels can’t, and the demons can’t. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can’t keep God’s love away. Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God, that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”