I don’t believe that God puts His people in hard places nor do I believe His divine plan has curses or tragedies in it for them. He portrays Himself as the Good Shepherd. The twenty-third Psalm describes the duties of a shepherd. Nor only that, but He is the one who established who is under the curses and what they are and who is under the blessings and what they are.
Thirdly: Gal: 3:13-14: Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: 14: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
No, our hardships are because we reap what we sow and our choices have consequences.
Why does someone who is a born again child of God have to go through suffering? Because we must reap what we sow in order to grow. We must learn to choose righteousness. There is no other way to live. It is through choices that God conforms us into the image of His Son. God’s over-all divine plan is to conform each of us into the image of His Son. But He has an individual plan for each of us to that end. He does the whole thing through the results of the choices we make in each of life‘s situations..
When a person chooses to live with a member of the opposite sex without marrying them, they have chosen to rebel against God. They have chosen to disobey the Bible. Their choice will hurt many. It will hurt themselves because sin leaves it’s mark. Sin weakens one’s ability to make good and righteous choices. Sin causes one to hide from God. The choice to sin makes the person vulnerable to the devil’s agenda for them. Sin is the cause of sickness and disease. Sin demotes a person from their original position in God’s design.
The choice to have an intimate relationship with a someone outside of marriage will be a very bad influence on any children who may be involved–the adults in their lives are powerful examples for them. It will expose any children involved to many dangers, heartaches, and instabilities that they would not need to be exposed to. The ripples from this bad choice will be many and go far.
The biggest harm that comes from having sex outside of marriage is illegitimate children. Modern thinking will ask, “What’s so bad about being illegitimate? Look around. Is it a good thing to see all these children with one parent, all these children with a warped idea of morality, all these children exposed to insecurity, bad influences, exc., all these children following in their parent’s footsteps–producing more immoral, undisciplined, ungodly offspring?
We make choices all the time. Those of us who are children of God made a choice to believe the gospel. Then we made a choice to repent of sin. Then we made a choice to receive Jesus into our heart to be our Lord and Savior. After making all those good choice we are in a position to make better choices in all areas of life. Choices that will better benefit ourselves, those close to us, our community, and our nation.
Whatever situation comes up there are choices to make.
It’s income tax time. You choose whether you will be completely honest as Jesus teaches us to be or whether you will rationalize and therefore omit some of the items that should be listed.
Most of the people who consider themselves children of God will rationalize and cheat a little.
The effect: You give the devil an inch, he’ll take a mile. Because you did not choose godliness, your conscience is a little less astute, your heart is a tiny bit harder, your relationship with God is a slight bit off, your integrity is not up to snuff, and you are a tad more susceptible to temptation than you were before you made that decision to rationalize and therefore compromise goodness.
Your reaction is probably, “Oh, you’re making too much of it.” No. No, I’m not. It’s just that serious. And this is just why the church is not thriving in godliness, reverence, and piety.
Amplified Bible Dan: 8:12: And the host [the chosen people] was given [to the wicked horn] together with the continual burnt offering because of the transgression [of God’s people–their abounding irreverence, ungodliness, and lack of piety]. And righteousness and truth were cast down to the ground, and it [the wicked horn] accomplished this [by divine permission] and prospered.
The opposite is true too. You choose righteousness and list all your income over $100 and the devil is driven backwards, you gain in integrity and power to resist temptation. Your relationship with God is first class and you are, so far, an overcomer.
Your spouse ticks you off and you have a strong urge to line her/him out good and that’s just what you choose to do. When you finish you stalk off. Do you feel like an overcomer? Do you feel good about yourself as though you had won a victory? No. You feel like a heel. Worse, you feel mean and rotten. You want to go back and take it all back, but you choose not to do that–it would mean swallowing your pride and the spouse may think they got the upper hand.
The effect: You are in a bad mood for a period of time in which the accuser hammers at you causing you to feel like anything but a Christian. The thing will eat at you until you let it go either by pretending it never happened when with you spouse or mumbling an apology and considering the subject closed. The devil scored a point, you lost the round and took a step backward in your spiritual journey.
The opposite is true too. You could’ve taken a step forward by choosing righteousness and going back in there and apologizing or by praying about it until God convinces you to go apologize and then going and doing it thereby giving the devil a black eye, and causing your spouse to feel affectionate toward you, and causing you to feel like a winner–you have triumphed over the enemy.
I hope you get the idea–all choices have consequences for bad or for good and all our choices affect others as well as our self. God’s plan is for people to receive His Son as their Lord and Savior and then to make choices that will lengthen and strengthen your life and those who are affected by your choices. This is how to make the world a better place.
If you say you belong to God and yet your choices are hurting you, your witness, and those you have to do with, you are deceived. God is good and He has made a way for us to be good for ourselves and others. Make the world a better place–worship God.
Scriptures to show these truths.
Deut: 281-2: And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: 2: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.
Deut: 30:19-20: I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: 20: That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
Joshua: 1:8:This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
Isa: 3:10: Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings.
Jer: 17:10: I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
Matt: 7:11-12: If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? 12: Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.
Rom: 5:17: For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
Rom: 6:13: Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
Rom: 6:18: Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
Rom: 8:4: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
By Sylvia Huffnagle