35 You Are Being Trained / Hebrews 12:5-13 / 01-19-2020 / John Skaggs

When an unbeliever comes face to face with pain or tragedy, he speaks of bad luck, fate, or he looks for someone to blame. For the follower of Jesus, things are, or ought to be, different. The Bible tells us that our Father, the Creator, and Sovereign Lord or Ruler of all, “works all things after the counsel of His own will! (Ephesians 1:11). He loves us with a perfect, Divine Love, and leaves nothing to chance or luck. Having been adopted by God through faith in Jesus, He works all things together for our good and His glory, even pain, and suffering. Christians don’t feel pain any less the unbeliever does and we are not exempt in any way. When a Christian looks into the face of a deformed baby, or sees his teenager badly hurt in an accident, or perhaps holds the trembling hand a dying wife; He may cry out in grief, ‘Why Lord, do the righteous suffer? Or with the Psalmist ask, “Why do You stand afar off, O LORD? Why do You hide in times of trouble? (Psalm 10:1) These and many questions like them are answered for us in Hebrews 12:5–11. You have come on the right day, for your past, present, and future circumstances are about to be given purpose.