Romans 8:35, 37(NIV) tells us, “35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” This is God’s promise to us. He never breaks a promise, and we have witnessed this many times in our lives. We’ve endured hardships and problems, but God’s love never fails. He brings about a solution that we could never have thought of on our own. In a nutshell, He rescues us from trouble, just as He promised He would.
One thing that happens in life, the older and more mature you become, the more challenging problems get. The intensity of them seems to increase as we grow and develop in our lives and in our relationship with Heavenly Father. This catches many of us by surprise. Even though we know that God has brought us through the fire many times, we catch a case of amnesia when the storm hits home. We forget how good God has been to us; and not just to us, but to those we love and care about as well.
We begin to doubt that He’s going to show up as He has so often before, and we allow our minds to focus on the lack or problem we are dealing with. One of the truths we learn along life’s journey is that we think more with our hearts than we do with our minds. This is one reason why Philippians 4:6(NKJV) says, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;” The Word tells us not to have anxiety about anything. We shouldn’t worry about a situation and let it dominate our thoughts, but this is exactly what some of us do.
1John 4:18 (NKJV) says, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” Whether consciously or subconsciously, when trouble hits, the first thing many of us will think is that God is punishing us. Years ago, Christians were taught to fear God. People lived in fear because they never knew whether God was going to bless them or curse them with terrible punishment. Today, thankfully many of us have learned to rightly divide God’s Word, and we know better, but there are some people still believing as those who lived back in the day. We must understand that back then, and today as well, people were not perfect. They made mistakes. They messed up big time, and we are still messing up. Sometimes we do the wrong thing, but God isn’t sitting in heaven saying, “You’re in trouble now, buster!!!” He knew what we were going to do, even before we did it.
God’s heart is to love and bless us. No, He doesn’t want us to sin or make mistakes, but He knows it is going to happen. That’s why He sent His Son to us, so that we could see how much He loves us. Love is the best rod of correction there is. It corrects by changing our hearts, and this is God’s greatest desire for each of us, that we will allow Him to transform our hearts to the heart of Christ.
Heavenly Father is the Creator of the entire universe. He has all power in His hands. He’s more intelligent than any of us can fathom, and He is righteous, good, faithful, and true 100% of the time. We can’t outsmart Him, and there’s nothing we can do that He hasn’t already taken care of through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ. The Cross of Christ took care of all our sin issues. 1John 4:16 tells us, “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” Heavenly Father has made it possible through Jesus Christ for us to live in Him, and He lives in us. So, if He punishes us, He punishes Himself; that just wouldn’t make any sense.
God is all love all the time. Yes, problems might get bigger, but He wants us to realize that He is always going to be bigger and greater than any problem we can face. And as our problems grow, so should our faith in His love for us. Heavenly Father doesn’t want a relationship with us that is based on fear. He doesn’t want us to fear anything, because His love is not made perfect in our fear. His love is made perfect IN and TO us as we trust completely in it. He wants to build a relationship with us that is built on His faithfulness to His Word, and the promises that He has made to protect and care for us for an eternity.
We should never look at our problems as punishment from God. 1John 1:5 (NIV) emphatically declares, “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” Fear, darkness, and punishment are the devil’s territory. God is love, light, and liberty. He wants us to have confidence in His love for us, even when our troubles and problems seem more than we can handle. So, we should look at every adversity as a challenge to believe and trust God greater than we ever have before. This is how we bring Him glory and continue to move higher and forward in His love.
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
“He Doesn’t Punish, He Loves” written by JMack. 4theChristianMan© 2017. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.