Ever since the inception of sin, this world has devolved from a place wherein dwell the holy God; a place where Jehovah came to commune with man daily, into a place where evil reign freely and the inhabitants are inflicted with all manner of evil. These evil are manifested in the unfortunate things that happens daily and the man made tragedies (murder, injuries, crashes of all kind etc.) that secures the mental and physical suffering that are inflict on many or each of us. These along with the other bad things that happens to us as a direct results of man’s behavior and sin that appear to have happen without the direct involvement of us human. Here we speak of illnesses, death and what is termed as "natural disasters" etc.
We are force to deal with the grief that accompanies the death of love ones, we have seen the suffering of friends, family and acquaintance and we have experienced such suffering for our self. We have feel the pain and suffering that is not known to Jehovah’s Holy Angel and that were not experienced by the mother and father of humanity, that is; until they disobeyed Jehovah's laws and sin entered into the world. We have seen and heard of innocent, helpless babes contracting the worst kind of illnesses; we have also seen and heard of these precious gift from Jehovah (babies) becoming victims of abuses in its most extreme form. This world has reached the stage where, the murder of the baby, in or out of the womb is a common and acceptable practice.
Having considering all the above facts; we are forced to believe that there is a God: Jehovah, whose main attributes is love and he sits at the reign of the universe; who has particular interest in this world: would just sits back and allow all of these atrocities to happen to human kind, who some considers to be Jehovah's favorite creation. Yes Jehovah has the power to stop the innocent helpless babes from being afflicted with such evil, yet he look on with interest and he does nothing.
I have face and gone through many difficult experience in my life, yet I have never had one bad thing happened to me. I have been stabbed, had broken bones, I have had illnesses that caused me to toppled over helpless in pain, I have been betrayed by close friend, conspired against, had hits put on me, escaped death several times, intentionally poisoned, efforts were maid to get me hooked on drugs, etc. yet I have never had a bad thing happened to me.
We can say from experience; no one like to endure hard or difficult times and when such comes our way, we often take or view life’s events and experiences in isolation. However; life’s events and life’s experiences do not come isolated. When confronted with a negative event; my earthly father always took the time to remind us and himself, no matter how bad the event or the experience we had to go through or endure were/are; it could have been worst.
If Jehovah were to give the devil unfettered access to us, we would have been destroyed in the very worst way a long time ago. Our suffering would have been so severe and so excruciating we would have been begging for death to come to us. The bible warned us about the intent of the devil; 2 Peter 5: 8, “be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:” Here the bible speaks about the devil and his intent for each person. He wants to devour us. It is the devil who is truly responsible for all of the suffering, the heart aches and the pain that man endure. However; it is Jehovah who allows him to inflict such upon us.
Jehovah allows the devil to so cause us pain and suffering for two basic reasons which are:
So he can bring us back into the safety of his care.
Very often we intentionally and at times we accidentally stray far from the protection of Jehovah, we forsake his love, his protection and his will for our life. When we do such, we are denying Jehovah the rights to take care of us; in other words, we reject his protection, his grace, his mercy and his love. The good thing about this is: even though we reject his love and his leading in our lives; he Jehovah never treats us as we deserve to be treated. He still extends his hand of protection towards us, saving us from the true intent and purpose of the devil. Even though we reject him he only gives the devil limited access to us. 1 Corinthians 10:13 “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” Even when we have betrayed and abandon our sustainer, he still has our backs, even when with our actions and with our words we tell him in clear language to leave us alone he still ensure that we are not allowed to face the full wrath of the devil.
He wants to ensure that we develop a character that makes us worthy to be called his own.
It is no secret that sin has defined us. Our thoughts action and vocal expression are as such that cannot dwell in the holy places of the Most High. It is Jehovah's plan to restore us to our rightful place and status. However; because of our love for the unholy, sin, the things of sin and our free will it is impossibly for the all knowing God to restore us except for the way that he choose. We need to give Jehovah our independence and rely solely on him. Unfortunately, this submissive character trait is totally alien to human kind. So we have to be retrained using negative-positive re-enforcement. Here is where the Devil and suffering comes in. Like a parent and a child; when that child does something wrong that child is punished, sending a clear message to the child that the particular behavior is not an acceptable behavior and when the child does something good, he or she is rewarded and praise sending the clear message that such behavior are acceptable behaviors. So the negative behaviors are punished and discourage and the positive behaviors are rewarded and encouraged. The same technique is use in the training of animals.
It is the same method Jehovah use to ensure our characters are retransformed into that which is fitting to inherit his kingdom: the Kingdom of Heaven. Here is where the devil comes in; when we go against Jehovah's laws, Jehovah gives the devil limited access to inflict upon us the needed punishment; however, such access is allowed not out of hate or to hurt us but to strengthen us and to lead us back to where Jehovah want us. When we are faithful to Jehovah, he ensures that we are rewarded, in many ways. He blesses us with wisdom, we are protected from evil and we are successful in all that we do. Ps 1: Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. 2But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. 4Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. 5Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. 6For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
Many people asked why? When supposedly bad things happen to them, and in their ignorance some people question Jehovah in anger; while again others choose to be detached from their creator/sustainer. They blame him for what went wrong or the bad things that had happened.
I was fortunate, in that; my parents taught me not to ever question Jehovah when supposedly bad things happens to me, knowing that Jehovah is faithful to us wards; not willing that any should perish but all should come to repentance.
When at the tender age of seven (7) years old, my mother; the only Christian I have ever known, the only person who loved me unconditionally, and the person whom I was closest too died; although I did not understand why my world came crashing down and fell into complete ruins; I took my mothers words that her death was for the best as she always said: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28 and Ps 84: 1, which says: For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless or upright.
There is story that may help us to understand more fully, the events that go on behind the scene; events we are not privilege to; events that happens in the spiritual realms that has a direct effect us in our world.
The story is told of a Christian farmer who was finding it hard to make ends meet, however he had a strong healthy cow. The cow was the only thing of value the farmer had; it kept the farmer and his wife from going under. The cow gave enough milk to satisfy the farmer domestic need and there were always enough milk to sell to take care of the other needs of the couple.
But one morning when the farmer went out to milk the cow, he noticed the cow was dead, how this could be? The farmer asked in despair, what am I going to do now? He questioned. The farmer wondered why
Jehovah would do such a thing to him; after all he serving Jehovah faithfully and all he asked in return was for the ability to provide for his wife. Now even his humble desire was taken away from him. So in his disappointment and in his hurt he angrily questioned Jehovah as to why he will allow his cow which was his only means of providing for his family to die.
Jehovah understood the feelings of hopelessness and the pain of disappointment the farmer felt; so Jehovah decided to allow the farmer’s guardian angel, to expose him to the events that lead up to the death of his cow. The farmer was told that the angel of death came for his wife, and because His guardian Angel knew how much he love his wife; the Guardian Angel had to give the Angel of death something of value in exchange for the life of the farmer’s wife, it is then the farmer’s guardian Angel give to the Angel of Death the life of the farmer’s cow. When the farmer heard this he was dumbfounded.
So each time we are face with a trial, that seems to much for us to bear, or when our experiences make us want to forsake everything even life; Just remember that Jehovah had promised, he will never allow us more than we can bear, and everything works together for the good of those who love the lord.
Before Jehovah ask you to scale a mountain, he will teach you how to climb, before he let you lose in thin air he will give you wings to fly, if he want you to be a vessel he will teach you how to float, if he want you to sail the ocean he will first give you a boat. If he wants you to liberate others, he will ensure that you are free and if he wants you to walk on water he gives you Buoyancy. Jehovah will never ask us to undergo any task unless he is assured that we are equipped to be successful; if this is true then our failure is of our own doing.
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