Does the Bible Have Answers in Difficult Times

Are you stressed, scared, and wondering does the Bible have answers for you in these difficult circumstances?

If so, you’re not alone. Almost everything we considered normal has changed. Our illusions of control have vanished. We’re in a global pandemic, and racial tensions and political divisions have never seemed higher. The world is pretty scary.

Whether you’re concerned about the virus, different forms of violence, educating your children, or the government, abortion, racism, etc., there is a lot to worry about right now.

Many of us are facing hard times and don’t know where to turn.

Even if you’re trying not to worry, anxiety creeps around the corners of your mind like the title to a song you can’t quite remember.

But you want to have faith and confidence that there is a reason for this awful situation, but don’t know where to look for peace.

The Bible does have answers about peace and hope that help us keep faith in God during hard times.

When nothing is certain in my life, I turn to the one thing I am certain of.

God is in control.

I can trust God in difficult times.

1 John 4:8b ESV . . .God is love.

His whole plan from the very beginning was to take the death we deserve on Himself.

God chose to punish Himself, through the person of Jesus, for us.

I can’t say that enough times.

God loved us so much that He planned from the beginning to take our punishment for sin on Himself through the person of Jesus Christ. #JesusChrist #Christianity #ChristianityHasAnswers Click To Tweet

Jesus is God. We say He is God’s son, but He was not a son in the human sense of the word. He is part of the divine nature of God and became human to walk among us.

Emmanuel, one of the names for the Messiah, means God with us.

God is with us during hard times.

He gave up all of His heavenly kingdom to experience human life: suffering, joy, poverty, hunger, rejection, friendship, torture, and then death.

And He died so that we could become children of God and have eternal life with Him.

God’s love is that great for us. He loves us so much He would go through all that to reach us.

And God is patient with us. He doesn’t want any of us to die separated from Him. God’s desire is to save everyone.

2 Peter 3:9 ESV  The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

God’s word makes clear that everything in God’s plan is to bring as many people to salvation as possible before Jesus will return.

From choosing one people group as an example to the world to sending Jesus when He did, all of it was done at the perfect time (the Bible calls it the fullness of time) to save as many people as possible.

Does the Bible have answers about why God allows us to go through hard times if He loves us so much?

First, we live in an imperfect, fallen world. Some awful things we experience like rejection, pain, illness, injury are products of living in an imperfect world with imperfect people.

God never wanted this world for us. He wanted us to live in a perfect world in perfect relationship with Him and all of His creation.

However, we cannot love God or each other without having the freedom to choose love. In order to have a world that allowed for love, He had to give us free will.

But free will also means we also, sometimes, freely choose to reject Him.

And that rejection has a price. Our world has sickness and disease. People are sinful and selfish.

The world feels angrier and more evil daily.

However, Only Christianity offers hope.

Only our God has answers for how justice will be done in this broken world. Only Christianity has a God that is unchangeable, loving, and personal.

Jesus was both fully God and fully man. He lived a sinless life among us, died on the cross, and rose again the third day.

While we suffer in this life due to sin, we have hope for eternity because Jesus conquered the grave.

John 16:33 ESV I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

We have reason to hope even if we do not know why we’re facing a tragedy or difficulty.

Sometimes that answer is God’s alone. He knows all the ways a circumstance might change the heart of a person or the direction of a nation.

God might allow things like the virus to get our attention. More people are seeking Him than ever. Some stores have seen their Bible sales increase dramatically.

And the shutdown made us all realize how important the people in our lives are.

While we cannot always know for sure what reasoning God may have for allowing specific tragedies in our lives, we do know God weaves together tragedy and beauty.

I’ve seen it happen in my own life. 4 hip surgeries and 4 hip dislocations with lengthy recoveries in the last 7 years has really been hard. But in it I’ve seen God grow me as a wife and give me time to focus on motherhood in a way I would not have been able if I had gone back to work, which was the plan before all this.

I’ve seen my marriage strengthened. And I know God has used this situation to sanctify me as a Christian. I am a better wife, mother, mentor, and friend because of the lessons I’ve learned in suffering.

While we can’t always know the entire purpose God has in allowing troubles into our lives, we can trust that He won’t let it be for evil ultimately.

Genesis 50:20 ESV As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

God uses hard things to save others, to bring us to repentance, to demonstrate how His people respond in a crisis.

But sometimes the goodness of God doesn’t seem clear. We go through heartbreaking tragedy that does not seem to have an end or purpose.

But we can grow to understand the character of God in the Bible.

God’s plans are timeless. While we see our mortal lives and short-term plans, God sees eternity.

One of our most favorite verses about God’s plans for our lives follows a passage about how God will allow Babylon to conquer His people and enslave them for 70 years so that they will repent of their sins and return to following Him.

He had a plan for His people that would culminate after the lifetimes of some. He instructed them to build homes and marry their children while waiting for Him to fulfill His promises.

They had to trust, even as some died in captivity, that God would come for them. And He did.

God is always true to His word.

And we can know that if we belong to Him, God planned our lives before the foundation of the world. Nothing will happen to us that is outside of His perfect will.