The Answer that´s Always Right

I started these blogs asking why the God Who loves us would allow the Coronavirus to spread so broadly and kill so viciously.  I have suggested from Scripture seven reasons why the Lord allows adversity and trouble to befall us. Any one or all of them could be the reason for each of us.

• To get our attention
• To get us in the yoke with Himself, under His control
• To demonstrate His love by chastening us to bring us closer to Himself
• To motivate us to conquer pride
• To move us to self-examination
• To reveal our weaknesses that we can rely on His strength
• To cause us to cry out to God

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I find one other reason in the Scriptures as to why God sends or allows trials to come to followers of Christ.  This reason is not just one of many. It is one reason that should always be on the list of why God does or allows anything at all to come into our lives.

• To transform us in the likeness of Christ!

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This is God´s constant purpose for us.  Read

Romans 8:28-29  And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

God´s continuous desire for each of us who have trusted Jesus as our Lord and Savior is that we should increasingly be conformed to the image of His Son.

Therefore, when adversity comes, we should examine to see if there is a need in our life in one of the first seven areas mentioned, and if so, respond and cooperate with the work of God in those areas.  However, even if none of the first seven apply, we should always look for the ways God wants to use the time of trouble to make us more like His own dear Son.
As I look back on the watershed points of my life, those moments in my timeline that made everything different for the rest of my life, I think of five:

• When I put my trust in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior
• When I surrendered to God´s call to preach the gospel
• When I married Karen to be my wife and partner in ministry for life
• When I abandoned theological liberalism and became committed to the inerrancy and sufficiency of the Scriptures
• When I repented of spiritual near sightedness, and committed the rest of my life to be an Acts 1:8 Christian and Acts 1:8 pastor.

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Each of those God ordained events were used by the Lord to bring about much needed transformation to make me a little more like Christ. I have so very, very far to go and not nearly enough time remaining to make the progress needed.  But I am grateful that God has been faithful to work in all things to accomplish good in my life.
Not all, but most of those watershed/transformational times came during a period of adversity. Right now, I am asking, “God, what do You want to do in my life in this season of world-wide plague to make me more like Jesus?”  Would you ask also?