God Is For Us

Sometimes, as Christians, we can feel like we are behind the eight ball. We can have money problems, career problems, marital problems, and all kinds of other problems. We also can think in terms of our corporate problems as the church. We are ridiculed and often despised by the world. But we need to remember that God is for us (Romans 8:34,35; 2 Corinthians 2:14; 1 John 5:4). This does not mean it will always be easy; in fact, we are told we will have problems (John 16:33; Acts 14:22; 1 Peter 4:12,13). But if we are still going to go through troubles, in what way is God with us? The answer is that God works our problems together to conform us to the image of Christ (Romans 8:28-30; 5:3-5; James 1:2-4). Further, God intends to bring us through these struggles to stand before Him in glory (2 Corinthians 4;17,18; Romans 8:18-25; 1 Peter 5:9-10). But sometimes if we are not careful, we can start to wonder if God has deserted us or if He is even real. But we need to focus on the big picture: who God is and what He has done for us. In this, it helps to focus on the Cross and what God has done there to take away our sins (Romans 5:6-8; Colossians 2:13.14; 1 Peter 2:24,25). But there can be a deeper problem.  

There is a danger of our seeing what happens in our life as being based on our performance. We feel that if we work hard and try to do the right thing, God will reward us with a trouble-free life. But does this stack up Scripturally? Quite often it is those obey God who go through difficult lives: for example, Job, Jeremiah, the apostle Paul, and, of course, the Lord Jesus Himself. Now the Scripture does say that God can discipline us for our disobedience (Hebrews 12:4-11; 1 Corinthians 11:29-32), but when God does this He acts as a Father, to restore us not to discard us. But Scripture repeatedly rebukes the idea that all tribulation is the result of sin (Job 1:8; John 9:1-3; Hebrews 11:35-40). Rather, genuine believers are to understand that they are righteous in God’s sight based on what Christ has done (Romans 8:33,34; Philippians 3:9; John 3:18) and that He will bring us through to the end (Romans 8:29,30; Philippians 1:6; Jude 24,25). Nor should we focus on our own inadequacies . For God has promised to make us adequate, not necessarily to accomplish what we want, but what He wants (2 Corinthians 3:5,6; Colossians 1:28,29; Philippians 4:13). For it is only as we get the broader perspective of trusting in God for what He is doing in our lives, rather than focusing on how our lives have fallen short of our expectations, that we can trust Him--that He is for us in spite of circumstances.