How can we be proved of faith if not tested? How can we
learn how to handle our lives if not challenged? Life is a continual struggle
one after another. No one can evade from the real struggles. All kinds of
people are entitled to go through the continual challenges and pressures. Nevertheless,
many a people are in fantasies and illusions and even delusions. Multitude of
Christians joins these kinds of people unwittingly and ignorantly.
Why there are continual challenges and pressures lie ahead
of all people? They are all designed and programmed by God the Lord of hosts as
the opportunities for us to see all things realistically. Life is not a game
playing, nor randomly given some lucky others unlucky. The Scripture says that
God created the heavens and the earth. Nothing was made without the purpose of
the Creator. Jesus says even a sparrow would not fall down if the Father did
not allow it. How much more valuable is the human’s life than the sparrow’s.
Not long after the beginning, humans had gone wrong badly that
they even think that they could live without God the Creator. The Prophet
Isaiah lamented for his people who didn’t remember their God. “The ox knows its
owner And the donkey its master’s crib; But Israel does not
know, My people do not consider.” (Isaiah 1:3 NKJV) Humans have been deceived
by the liar, the father of lie and murderer. Adam fell into confusion and delusion
and so do all his descendants.
God in His longsuffering has put the fallen humanity into
the wonderful recovery program which takes lifetime to learn. When God visited
Adam in the Garden and asked a few questions. Adam and his wife both confessed
that they ate the forbidden tree. When they confessed the wrongs, God pronounced
the marvelous recovery program for all humanity.
“So the Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you
have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more
than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall
eat dust All the days of your life. And I will put enmity Between you and the
woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.” To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply
your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your
desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule
over you.” Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of
your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying,
‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your
sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. Both
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the
herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you
return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to
dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:14-19 NKJV)
First of all, God cursed the devil who deceived and victimized
man, pronouncing an everlasting verdict on him that he shall be in the utter
humiliation and defeat. Ultimately Satan will be condemned and put into the
eternal burning sulfur. God is just and will revenge the enemies (Romans
12:19). God sent His begotten Son to redeem the chosen people through the
blood.
To the woman God gave the great and multiplying sorrow and
pain in childbearing. To the man God gave the lifetime toil and labor till he
returns to the ground. How could God’s pronouncement not be the curse but the
recovery program? It is because the enemy of humanity is not humans but the
devil. The devil infiltrated into humanity and polluted badly so that we are
born to be selfish and proud and self-centered. This is called sin which completely
has transfigured us like the monstrous beings. At times many are puzzled and
bewildered by such cruel acts done by humans. The devil is still influencing
humanity a great deal that he can twist and distort our thoughts and minds
unexpectedly and suddenly.
The twist and distort of truth is deeply entrenched in our
humanity. That’s why God keeps on sending us challenges and obstacles down the
road as a loving Father in an endeavor to reach out the lost race with a loud
megaphone. Paul confirms that all sufferings and difficulties are common to all
men.
“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to
man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be
tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the
way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13 NKJV)
So, we do not lose heart. God’s divine program for recovering
and restoring humans to the point where God intended to be before the time
began is working beautifully and marvelously that thousands of tens of
thousands are coming to the Lord Jesus Christ.
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our
outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being
renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a
moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal
weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at
the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary,
but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians
4:16-18 NKJV)
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