Have you ever thought to yourself about certain circumstances in your life: “Well, at least it isn’t ______________. I mean, it could always be worse, right?”
And then whatever you filled in the blank with happens?
I’m not even going to pretend this hasn’t happened to me. It has. More than once.
It can be the most awful feeling in the world: the loss of a loved one, your house burning down, your husband leaving you for another person, getting THE diagnosis, your children walking away from the faith, losing your dream job after making big financial decisions, a person you’ve looked up to in the faith falling into sin or just walking away from it all after years of faithful living.
We all have ‘the thing’ that we REALLY don’t want to happen to us. The thing that we fear. The thing that sits in the back of our mind and toys with us at times, but never comes to the surface. Because if we spoke it out loud, then surely we would be ‘jinxed’ and it would happen.
And we may even pray things like “God, I can handle everything you throw at me except ________________. PLEASE don’t let that happen. If that happens I don’t know what I will do. I think I would probably die.“
And there is some truth to that prayer. We don’t know what we will do until we are faced with ‘the thing’. But most of the time we won’t die. We may feel overwhelmed. We may hide from the world. We may pretend like it isn’t happening. We may get mad at God and ask Him what exactly it is that He was thinking to allow ‘the thing’ in our lives. We may even wish we were never born so this string of events could have never come to pass. But we most likely won’t die.
There once was a man named Job. If you have never read his story, I encourage you to get a Bible and read through his book. He was a man who was upright before God, hated evil, and loved good. Several heartbreaking events happening at the same time (because Satan was looking to prove to God that Job would curse Him if certain things happened in his life) cause turmoil for Job. (As I’m sure you can imagine.)
Job did really well for quite a while. And then his ‘friends’ showed up. And they made things worse. He gets to the point where he wonders why he was even born. And Job actually says this:
Job 3:24-26
(24) For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters.
(25) For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.
(26) I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.
The thing he feared the most happened. He was minding his own business, serving the Lord and living his best life, and suddenly it was all gone. His kids, his riches, his position in the community, the respect of his wife, his health…everything- just gone in an instant. Job says he wasn’t trying to hide from the world, he wasn’t holed up somewhere wishing his fears wouldn’t happen. He was living and serving…and still what he was afraid of happened.
And you know what? Job didn’t die.
He struggled for a while, definitely. He had people telling him he must be in sin somehow for all this to befall him. His wife even told him to curse God and die because everything that was happening was just too much.
But instead Job said this:
Job 13:15-16
(15) Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.
(16) He also shall be my salvation: for an hypocrite shall not come before him.
He recognized that God was sovereign. He knew the Lord had a reason for all the things he was experiencing. And though he did struggle through it, he made it to the other side. Even when everything except God was stripped away from him. Even when others turned against him and unfairly judged him. Even when he himself wished he had never been born. God stepped in and reminded him who He was.
So we can look at these things in our lives in one of two ways: a blessing or a curse.
The Bible tells us in James 1:17 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”
If we take a look at the definitions of the word gift in this verse, we’ll see it is actually two different words. The first means the act of giving. And the second means an actual gift.
When we look up the word ‘good’ in this verse it means beneficial, and the word perfect means complete (in various applications of labor, growth, mental and moral character, etc.).
So the verse actually literally says: “Every beneficial giving and every complete bestowment is from above…” which means that everything God allows not only comes from His goodness, but is for our good.
Can you look at everything God allows as a beneficial gift to make you complete in growth, and mental and moral character?
I have been through some things in my life. I have had things I feared the most happen to me or the people I love. And while I have had my share of wishing those things away, or wishing they had been different, God has been teaching me that they are, indeed, gifts.
He has taught me much about myself through suffering. He has refined and changed and grown me. And I don’t know that I would’ve been receptive to those lessons had I not been in a place of vulnerability with God.
Spoilers: I didn’t die.
I have come to the realization that God only gives good gifts. Even when they are wrapped in hardship, pain, and suffering. It is only always for our good and His glory.
Always.
Psalm 72:18 Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things.
James 1:12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
2 Thess 1:12-13 Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power:
(13) That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Of Faith & Fortitude 
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