Suffering?
Gods timing is always so perfect, even when it doesn't seem like it. When you look back later you come to realize it was very timely and strategic. I had recently finished a Bible Study I had been working through for months now and was trying to decide what study to do next. It so happened that during this time of praying about what I should study, Hurricane Harvey happened here in Houston along with a close friend losing her precious 3 week old baby. I was feeling so overwhelmed with grief over her loss and all of the thousands of people around me suffering from the horrible floods. That's when God lead me straight to the Study I was to do in a devotional app I had recently downloaded, called First5. The study is called "Suffering and Sovereignty", a study through the book of Job. God is so good and timely...it was just what I needed! However, Job is a difficult thing to study because it starts right off with God allowing some horrific things to happen to Job, His faithful child. So, at first, it just added to my questions about why His children must suffer so badly but as I've been sticking with the study it has helped me to be reminded that God has a plan for each of us. However, His bigger, ultimate plans, require that we go through some tough things but that doesn't change the fact that He loves us and wants the best for us. Sometimes the best for us, or for those our lives effect, is on the other side of a fiery trial. We just need to remember that He is there with us as we go through them and blesses us and others when we get to the other side. God is good, loving, and just, ALL THE TIME...even when it doesn't seem like it. He is more concerned with the eternal impact our lives have, along with our character, than He is concerned with our comfort and happiness. We must trust Him and cling to Him during those horribly difficult times and He will lovingly fill us with His supernatural comfort, peace and joy. Go to Him for refuge from the storm and resist pushing Him away. Philippians 4:6-7 "Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus." 1 Peter 5:10 "In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation." Romans 15:13 "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 8:28 "And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them."