Jesus said:

Here on earth we will have many trials and sorrows.

                                                                                            By Joyce Webb 2020

Jesus is talking to his disciples. Jesus knew his time had come to die on the cross.

He warned the disciples—you will be hated because you believe in me.

Jesus said: “ Here on earth you will have many trials (problems that are hard for you to bear) and sorrows.” John 16:33 New Living Bible

“Does it mean he (God) no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity (bad things happening)

or are persecuted (being made fun of, treated badly, people being mean,

or are hungry or cold, or are in danger or threatened with death?

No, in all these things, we can still have victory—it is ours through Christ, who loved us. ……nothing can ever separate us from his love.”

Words of Paul writing to the believers         Romans 8:35, 37,38 New Living Bible”

 

People often ask, “If God is love, why are all things terrible things happening?”

Or—-”Why do these bad things happen to good people—-God could stop it.”

God does stop many bad things from happening to us.

God does not stop every bad thing.

We live on earth. Long ago, when Satan was thrown out of heaven, he was allowed to be the Prince of the Earth and Air around it.

He has the power to influence things and people on earth, and he has the power to bring evil and bad things, and he has the power to bring sickness and disease—-he is the Prince of this earth.

God can over-rule things that Satan does. But God does not over-rule everything that Satan does—because—-God gave him the power to be the Prince of this world (earth).

The day will come when Satan will not be the Prince of the earth.

He will be thrown into hell forever.

But until then—he has been allowed to rule here on earth and use his power here on earth and in the air around the earth.

We are not happy about this. Adam and Eve brought this upon us back in the time of the Garden of Eden when they listened to Satan and did not obey God.

They gave Satan power over them. They turned their back on what God told them.

The sweet fellowship they had with God was broken. Every evening God came into the garden to talk with Adam—-that relationship was broken when Adam did not obey God.

Adam was sent away from the garden—because God did not want him to eat from another tree called the Tree of Life.

God did not want Adam to live forever in his sin. God planned a way to have Adam’s sin forgiven and taken away.

Because a “death punishment” was on Adam’s life—-either Adam would have to die—or someone could die in his place.

For many hundreds of years—-God allowed a lamb to die in Adam’s place for his sin. When the lamb died—Adam’s sin was put on the lamb and the lamb carried Adam’s sin and died in Adam’s place.

Then Jesus came—-a perfect man with no sin—he died in Adam’s place. Because it was a man who died and not an animal—the death punishment was complete. No other man needed to die.

We now live after Jesus death on the cross. We can have our sins forgiven and have fellowship with God.

But—-this world we live in—-is still under the power and influence of Satan as Prince of this world.

We will have to live in a world full of evil and trouble. Some of that trouble will come to us. We can not escape all of it.

Paul had many troubles as he traveled to tell Jews and Gentiles (non-Jews) about Jesus being the promised Messiah.

Paul had been beaten several times by the Jews who did not like to hear about Jesus.

He was put in jail many times. It was cold in jail and sometimes he did not have much food.

One time Paul was in a ship that was in a storm and the ship broke apart. But God helped everyone on the ship to get to land.

Paul knew that as we live in this world, we will have trouble. Bad things will happen to us. We will get sick.

The world is full of sin. Sin makes all kinds of trouble and sickness.

We live in this world and we will have the same troubles as people who do not believe in God. However, God will be with us to give us strength and help.

Does that mean that God does not love us? Does that mean that God forgot to watch out for us?

No, God loves us always. God knows what trouble has come into our life.

But Jesus said that he will be with us until the end of the world.

“Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.” Matthew 28:20

Paul learned to trust God. When troubles came, Paul learned to ask God for help. Paul learned to be patient and wait. He learned to keep believing even when things seemed to be going wrong.

If we stay true to God—some day we will see Satan punished for all his evil—-and we will get to go to a beautiful heaven.

Satan sees that his time for being the Prince of this world is coming to and end. He has known all along that he had only so much time to be Prince and then he would be punished.

Satan can see that his “end” is getting near. He wants to make as much trouble and evil as he can. He wants to make as many people as he can to follow him. He wants people to give up following Jesus.

He will do everything he can to make trouble.

As Christians—we can pray to God to protect us—but God will not keep up from every problem—God will stay with us and help us in the problem. God will give us his peace and his spirit as we go through problems.

Jesus warned us—in this world we will have many trials and sorrows.

Do not get mad at God. Do not get discouraged. Do not give up believing and trusting God.

We live in an evil world—-but if we stay true to God—-someday we will live in a beautiful heaven.

Jesus said:

“Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.” Matthew 28:20

He will see us through our troubles.