Punishment

I lived in Bildad's ideas for a long time. I spent years "estranged" from my heavenly Father for many reason but primarily because I didn't understand WHO GOD IS! Bildad's seems to have the same problem I did. Bildad however did not have what I have. He didn't have God's word to guide him, nor did he have the Holy Spirit living in him. He has an excuse I don't.

"He made your children pay for their sins."
I felt that every time something bad happened, it was because I had sinned. And at some point, I decided the payoff was not worth it - so I ran and avoided God to the best of my abilities for over 20 years. It took me a while to learn that God does not operate that way. Discipline yes but punishment was taken away by the blood of Jesus. So how do you tell the difference in a world where sometimes we suffer from the decisions of others, or where things we don't understand happen and we lose everything we have worked for. How do you cope when someone you love and who loves God is taken away unexpectedly, or when your innocent child is taken? How do we answer those questions and still accept that this is not a punishment? First I think that we have to KNOW our FATHER! The only way to know him is to visit with him, speak with him, read his word. How we look at the Father is determined by how well we know his character and who he is. We have to learn to trust His word. Trust his love and trust that when something bad or unfortunate happens in our life, it's for his glory and as hard as it seems, that He will bring something good from it.
That's harder to do than it is to say that's for sure. Especially when you are living in the moment of distress, it is then that you have to make a choice - AND IT IS A CHOICE!- I will lean into God and trust him, or I will rebel and run away. And as I am leaning, I am just as often crying and talking to God. I don't understand his ways and he doesn't expect me too. Bildad does have it right when he says that "Your future will be brighter by far than your past."But that doesn't mean it will be immediate. God uses the trials and the pain we suffer in our lives to draw us closer (if we let him) and as a witness to a world filled with pain and trials. It's not always about us and while that is hard for some of us to believe, it's true. It's all about God!

Created 10 months ago