How can we fully understand the goodness of God? He is everything, and so much more than what we read in His Word. He is Life, and nothing can compare to all He is and all He does for us.
We need our Heavenly Father all the time, but we aren’t always thinking of Him. Except, perhaps, in times of our greatest needs. Is it not reasonable, then, that there are times when God reminds us of His great love by allowing difficult times to come our way events that are beyond our control, and painful so that we have no choice but to cry out to Him for relief. He doesn’t always take away the troublesome circumstances in response to our prayers, but He does draw us closer as we continually call out to Him for help and begin to lean on His strength rather than our own. As we become more fully engaged with Him in every way, feeling His presence and experiencing His peace that surpasses all understanding, we cannot help but give Him all the praise and all the glory.
None of us wants to experience hardship in our lives, but the pain we experience at those times pales in comparison to the joy of spending time with the Father as the result of our complete dependence . So why does God allow bad times to disrupt our comfortable lives? Maybe He wants to strengthen our relationship with Him, to show us in tangible ways that we can trust Him for the solution, and to open our eyes to the immense love He manifests when relief eventually comes. When we think about why bad times come our way, we need to consider our relationship with God. Are we drawing closer to Him? Are we relying on Him? Are we giving Him all the praise and all the glory? God is faithful. He is our life. He will go to the nth degree to show us how much He loves us.
“Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
1 Thessalonians 5:18 (NIV)