Why Does God Allow Hardship In Our Lives

WHY DOES GOD ALLOW HARDSHIP IN OUR LIVES?

Text: Psalm 73:1-2

Intro: Have you ever look around at you life and simply asked: WHY? Have hardships and trials ever come into your life for seemingly no reason? I want to share a few things from my own personal experience, only to illustrate the point I want to make. I am absolutely not trying to complain, not trying to make you feel sorry for me this morning.

My parents separated in a bitter divorce that left an 11-year-old boy trying to decide which of his parents he wanted to live with. When I moved back home to live with my dad I found my self living in a drunkards home, that didn’t really bother me until I was born again. I don’t understand why.

A few years later after my mother’s third marriage failed, she decided to move back to this area and she had not been back hardly a year and she suddenly took sick and was admitted to the hospital and was dead a short week later. We buried her on Christmas Eve. I Don’t understand Why.

About a year later my wife and I found out that we were to have our first child and she lost it. A couple of years we learned that we were expecting again and we had a beautiful baby girl, She was 3 months early and was in the hospital for a long stay before we were able to bring her home. I don’t understand Why.

I have tried to help a couple of families out financially and I have been almost forced in to financial bankruptcy along with having been sued. I was only trying to do right and show compassion to someone in need. I don’t understand Why.

My wife and I prayed and felt that it was time to try having another child and she miscarried twice this year. I don’t understand Why these things happen, but there has to be a reason.

So I want you to consider the thought of: “Why does God allow hardships in our lives?”

I certainly do not claim this morning to have all the answers, but I do have the answer book. First off, is it a sin to Question why things happen to you? I believe that the answer to this question is NO! There are several instances where great people of Faith have wondered why things happened to them.

Take Asaph for example. He was a contemporary of David, He was a godly man, not only a musician and psalmist, but also a seer or Prophet, he asked why? Look also to Psalm 77:7-9 He was not the only one to ever wonder what the Lord was doing. David had similar Questions; Psalm 10:1 Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble? Job was another one of God’s choice servants that couldn’t understand and He questioned what was going on and why. Job 7:18-20 And that thou shouldest visit him every morning, and try him every moment? 19 How long wilt thou not depart from me, nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle? 20 I have sinned; what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men? why hast thou set me as a mark against thee, so that I am a burden to myself? Job 19:22 Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?

So Why does God allow hardships in our lives? These are the reasons that I could find in the pages of God’s Word.

I. Purge Out Faults

There is no doubt that sometimes God allows hardship on our lives to chasten and rebuke us. That Principal is found through out the Word of God. As a matter of fact that is the literal context of the 73rd Psalm. Note the descriptions that are used in this psalm. “Jerusalem is fallen into perpetual desolations (vs. 3), and the enemy violates the Temple (vs. 3). The sanctuary’s intricate and beautifully carved work is battered with axes and hammers (vs. 6). The destruction of the Temple is complete (vs. 7), and the nation is seen to be without a prophet (vs. 9). A foreign devil blasphemes the name of the Lord God (vs. 10). Israel is depicted in a state of utter chaos and spiritual disarray.”

If you will recall the Old Testament every time the nation of Israel would be swept off into idolatry, the Lord would allow some foreign nation to come and carry the Jews off into captivity. It was a form of Discipline.

Turn to Hebrews 12:5-11

This in not to only reason, but it is a reason the Hardship come into our lives.

II. Prove Our Faith