2 possible results of challenging times
Why do bad things happen to good people? Well, keep in mind, bad things happen to all people. Depending upon where we are in our relationship with God, it’s during those times that we typically either move closer to God, or further away from God.
Keeping the right perspective during those times is key to see how God can use any circumstance, even difficult ones, to continue to work in our lives, molding and shaping who we are.
In 2 Kor. 1, Paul shows us 2 things that can happen – the first is so that as we go through tough things, we can be ready to help others in similar situations.
2 Kor. 1:3-4 says, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”
There are 2 “so that’s” in this passage talking about God’s comfort and why He will help us in our time of need. The first is “so that” we can comfort others. What’s amazing to realize is that if we lose perspective in hard times, we actually won’t experience God’s comfort (bad for us), but we also won’t be equipped to help others as God intends (bad for others), because our lives aren’t just about us, but actually they should be more about others.
I hope that we can remember there’s a lot more God wants to do in us through trials than simply get us through them.
Pastor Steve