One of the most common evangelistic tactics is to tell people that if they just turn their life to God, He'll take care of the pain, the struggle, the difficulty that comes with living life on this earth, and that your life will instantly get "better" because of it. We've given people the idea that coming to Christ means that they'll "float through life on flowery beds of ease," as Brother Hagin used to say.
However, that's not the case. In fact, our teaching in regards to this has caused many people to suffer shipwreck concerning the faith, as Paul spoke of in 1 Timothy.
I remember a story of a man who came to a preacher and asked the preacher to pray for him to not have any more struggles, troubles, or difficulties in life. The preacher laid his hands on him and said, "Lord, let him die."
When the man was shocked, the preacher quoted John 16:33, "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."
In other words, as long as you're on this earth and taking in breath, you're going to have difficulties. That word tribulation means, "pressure, both literally and figuratively, afflicted and affliction, anguish, burdened, persecution, tribulation, and trouble."
While there's nothing wrong with praying to God for a way out of the trouble/pressure/whatever the case might be, Jesus tells us that we are to be of good cheer because He has overcome the world and He has given us His peace.
I know I've seen that proven repeatedly in our lives. Shellby posted a reel the other day on instagram that was a brief, 60 second snapshot of our lives, and in it, it included us getting engaged, married, buying our first house, and a few brief pictures of the story I'm about to share with you.
A few years ago, like many young married couples, we decided it was time to start trying to have kids. We had it all worked out in our head. We would have 3-4 kids over the span of 6-8 years, and our family would be about as picturesque as could be.
But that's not what happened. We prayed, trusted God, and eventually went down the path of various tests and eventually fertility treatment options. Nothing seemed to work. It finally got to the point that the doctors told us, "There is no reason that you shouldn't be pregnant. I can't find anything wrong with you guys."
Looking back, the only way we know to phrase it now is something Shellby said to me this past year: God had shut her womb.
Now, this didn't necessarily sit well with my upbringing, but I KNOW it to be true for this one reason alone - there was a plan that was already set in motion. We had told God we wanted this to be done HIS way and not our own, and there were things that had happened that the enemy meant for evil that God was in the process of turning around for GOOD, even though we couldn’t see it at the time.
We made the choice to be of good cheer in this season. We put our trust in Him - that Jesus had already won the battle for us, but we didn't know what that would look like yet.
After a season of trying everything in the book we could think of, we felt a check in our spirits with regards to the fertility treatments, so we stopped and sought God as to our next steps.
It was adoption. We had always had it in the back of our head that, "We would have our biological kids and then when we were done, we'd adopt another," and always looked at the idea of adoption favorably, but it wasn't something that we had our hearts set on. However, when Shellby came to me and told me that this is what she felt like we were supposed to do, I knew instantly in my spirit that she was right.
So we began taking classes, getting certified, and having our home and marriage brought under the microscope because the Lord had directed us to adopt out of the foster care system. After we completed our work (over the course of a little less than a year to get fully certified for us), we set about the process of reading over the notes that were sent to us about the all of kids who were up for adoption - a brief one to two sentence description of who they were that could not, for all their best efforts, sum up the personalities of these beautiful children, and if we were lucky, it included a picture.
We prayed over every single one that was sent to us and applied for multiple sets of kids, getting close many times, but invariably came up short again for about three months. Finally, we got the call we had been waiting for - we had been selected for as placements for three beautiful children. We hadn't seen a picture of them yet, but we knew they were ours. We had a week and a half to get things ready after meeting them, and we knew right away they were our kids and we never looked back.
We've had these three amazing humans in our family for nearly three years now, and it seems like they are constantly teaching us things about ourselves, life, love, and God. It could not have been a better fit for us, yet in order to get here, there was a journey throygh pain that had to take place.
We experienced pressure, affliction, anguish, and trouble throughout this entire season, but we didn't just sit there and wait for God to deliver us through the trouble. There were lots of tears. There was wondering why. There was asking God what we had to do to fix it...we heard nothing. But we remembered the words of Jesus instructing us to be of good cheer, to find our rest and joy in Him. We share this story in encouragement because we feel like Paul - in that if we're to boast, we'll boast and glory in our infirmities because where we are weak, Christ shows Himself strong on our behalf.
I don't know what you're dealing with at the moment and what pain, struggle, or issues you may be dealing with, but know that God is not only with you through the struggle, but that through it all, you can be of good cheer - because He has overcome the situation you're facing, and He's made a way out of it for you, working everything out for your GOOD.
By Grace,
Dave