Boot Camp for the Coming War

When trouble, trials and pain hit, our first thoughts are normally:

“Why me?”

“What did I do to deserve this?”

What’s funny is we’re arrogant enough to think, “Nobody hurts like I do.”

A big, financial burden lands flat on our front lawn and we tell ourselves nobody suffers like we do.

Our back goes out (like mine did over the weekend) and we think, “Why do these things only happen to me?”

But, like Cherry on “The Outsiders” says, “It may be hard to believe but things are tough all over.”

It’s true the devil asks God’s permission to send troubles on us, hoping we’ll turn our backs on the Lord (Job, chapters 1 & 2), but what if God allows tribulation to STRENGTHEN, not punish us?

What if it’s for our own good?

He knows our future, right?

He knows what we need to get through our future trials, right?

So maybe our current trial is Boot Camp for the coming war.

Like my Uncle Aaron says, “Either I trust God or I don’t. Either I believe every word of the Bible or I can’t believe one word of it. The Bible says God knows what’s best for me so I believe it.”

With this in mind, please read the following slowly.

Digest it, and then consider the fact that what you’re going through is for your good, and not to chastise you.

“God is educating you; that’s why you must never drop out. He’s treating you as dear children. This trouble you’re in isn’t punishment; it’s TRAINING, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God’s training so we can truly live? While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what is best for us; training us to live God’s holy best. At the time, discipline isn’t much fun. It always feels like it’s going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it’s the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God (from Hebrews 12, The Message, emphasis mine)”