Has adversity hit your life through any tragedy? In my 23 years of counseling and 50 years of ministry, I’ve witnessed adversities in people’s lives that are beyond our fragile understanding. Why do bad things happen to good or innocent people?
Many people who have been raised in a church environment do not understand why sickness, death and evil exist. The devil wants people to blame God for the uncontrollable events in life. The Garden of Eden story has the answer.
God created Adam and Eve and put them in a beautiful garden that provided them beyond our understanding what they needed to live forever. God gave Adam one ‘do not’ rule. Do not eat of the Tree of Knowledge. He shared this with Eve. But when Satan came along and talked to Eve, she twisted God’s word and Satan followed her lead and did more twisting.
Eve was deceived, but Adam was not. He allowed Eve to use her power of influence to lead him to sin against God. Adam abdicated his authority. Adam blamed God for the woman God gave him. Eve blamed the devil. Neither one would take responsibility for their own action. The devil planted the sinful disobedient thought, but Adam and Eve made the choice to sin.
When Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, that choice brought sin, natural and spiritual death, sickness, birth defects, all evil, diseases, natural disasters and every adversity we deal with in life. God gave choice because His heart’s desire is for His Bride to choose to love and serve Him from their heart. God could have made robots to live on earth and serve Him, but that would not be by choice.
God never takes are choice from us. We choose to either serve Satan or the God who created the whole universe. Sinful people do evil sinful things to self and others. All evil in the world today originates from the choice of Adam and Eve to disobey God. God proved His love for us by coming to this earth in the flesh and dying on a cross to pay the penalty for our sins. We may suffer the consequences of our sinful choices. We cannot blame God. Even after salvation, God still gives us the choice moment by moment whether He will rule our hearts/choices or whether we will allow our selfishness to rule our hearts/choices.
Because we are born into this fallen world of sin, we do have the curse of physical death. It is appointed unto to man to die and then the judgment. Even with salvation, we all will die if the Lord does not return for His Bride in our lifetime. But we do not die without hope. Because of Jesus’ resurrection, we have the assurance we will be resurrected from the dead at His return in the clouds with the voice of a trumpet. Sickness and death is not an eternal curse to the believer. Lazarus was raised from the dead, but he had to die eventually.
Believers are in a spiritual warfare. Satan will come against us with adversity. The Bible says in this world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer Jesus overcame death and we have that same hope in Him. Nothing happens in our lives that is a surprise to God. He knows our beginning from our end. If we choose to love and serve Him, we can have the victory in the middle of adversity. We can do all things because He infuses His inner strength into us. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. His love never fails. Even if we sin, God still loves us. He just asks us to genuinely repent of our sin and turn from our evil ways and follow Him.
God will never take our choice from us. Satan brought sin into this world, but God came in the flesh to offer the gift of redemption. We must choose this day whom we will serve. Jesus is coming soon for those who are looking for their redemption!
The Bride will be with Jesus Christ in heaven during the 7 years of the Great Tribulation. We will return on white horses with Jesus, the King of Kings, to conquer the devil. Jesus Christ will set up a peaceful kingdom on earth for 1,000 years. Satan will be loosed for a short season to deceive some and then be thrown into hell forever. There will be a White Throne Judgment for all that lived from Adam who were not resurrected before. After this judgment, God will create a new heaven and earth. The Bride will rule and reign with Jesus Christ forever and ever. Time will be no more! Let’s comfort one another with these words!!! We have eternal hope and joy in God!!
© Carol Clemans – June 2015
Note: I love teaching God’s anointed Word for churches/conferences. I provide nationwide counseling by phone/Skype (636) 448-0121 for pastors and lay people. Go to: www.carolclemans.org for bio, 170+ articles, teaching CD’s & DVD’s, book: God’s Design for Marriage – teach marriage/family seminars. Ministry leaders: call me for a free DVD of my teaching.