Father God does not cause bad things to happen because of one’s disobedience but rather it is the disobedience that because of the law of sowing and reaping trouble becomes the neighbor of the disobedient. However, Jehovah is a great God and His love is beyond comprehension. It is because of this great love for us that He is able to use that which the enemy has intended for destruction for our own good! Yes it was the prodigal son’s actions and the effects of which that brought him to the brink of destruction but it was also the very thing that allowed him to hear God’s Holy Spirit call him back to the Father because prior to that his heart was filled with pride, thinking he knew better than anyone else what was best for his own life. I hate to say it but we do the same with God. O, it starts out innocent enough you’ve had a hard day so you don’t read your Bible or you watch TV instead of invest time with you wife and children, honestly you’re looking for an easy way out, an escape but that is wrong. What makes it even worse are those who recognize your faults and are more than glad to point them out to you. Even worse than that are those who pretend to care but instead stir up trouble by making it their business to tell others how you don’t measure up, blind to their own shortcomings (Matthew 7:3). I believe this person has paid a great price and will not fully be aware of it until the end though its not because God isn’t speaking to them too. Things like this only push us further away, making us feel isolated and unforgivable but God has a plan and He is bigger than all of that. Ultimately, we too are turned back to the Father because of the desperation we face living in our own strength. In the act of coming home we find that God has been waiting and watching for our return and the first thing we see is Him running towards us with arms open wide!
Why is it wrong to look for an escape from a life that is difficult at times? Because the difficulties are there to point us towards God, so that we might trust Him and see His deliverance but by looking and finding an escape we short-circuit God’s plan for our lives. Yes life can be difficult but if we hold onto Him we have His promise that He is making us into something we cannot be on our own and that something has great purpose in God’s story!
