Tuesday, December 4, 2012

God Has a Purpose in the Hardships He Brings

 “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving
for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”
II Corinthians 4:17
 
Not all hardships we may experience are from God.
Most of us would confess to doing some stupid things in life that then
created problems for us down the road.
Those would be examples of hardships and difficulties we have brought on ourselves.
In the life of Job we find trials and afflictions brought, not by God or through wrong actions on Jobs part, but by the devil.
Certainly, one way we can distinguish grief and struggles brought on by our own actions or the actions of the devil is to recognize that any hardships God brings in your life, He does so with a pre-planned purpose.
God is not cruel and He does not bring trials, afflictions and hardships just to watch you suffer and squirm.
In our example yesterday He brought, through Hannah’s hardship, a prophet to the Nation of Israel.
God declared in I Samuel 2:35 –
“I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who will do according to what is in my heart and mind. I will firmly establish his priestly house, and they will minister before my anointed one always.”
Now if you say that God accomplished more than that one thing in the life of Hannah, Elkanah and others, you would be right.
Often we can learn and grow much from the trials we endure. 
That, in itself, is another distinguishing feature of Gods hardships in our lives.
But it is equally true that what we learn and how we grow can impact,
not only our own lives but also, the lives of many others.
You need look no further than the life of Christ and His work on the cross to understand how the hardship of one brought blessings to many!
If God has brought hardship into your life, persevere through that it might
accomplish all He  purposed it to do. 
You will be blessed and so too will many others!

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