The Patriarch Joseph actually expressed this sentiment at a time in his life when it appeared he was going to lose another of his sons to the vast kingdom of Egypt.
“And Jacob their father said unto them, Me have ye bereaved of my children: Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: ALL THESE THINGS ARE AGAINST ME.” Genesis 42:36
Job of Old Testament fame might have used similar words, too. With all his trials … he actually testified: “I was at ease, but he (God) hath broken me asunder: he (God) hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.” That last clause, God has made me His target! Job 16:12
And someone reading right here today may also be wondering … “All my troubles, compounding as they are … is God ‘against’ me too?”
Now, I would like to show you another possible point of view. A better outlook! Glory to God!
Written also by a man of many troubles. Situations like these: “In labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.” Wow, Paul’s autobiography in 2 Corinthians 11.
The list rivals Jacob’s or Job’s, I’d say!
But Paul did not feel that God was “against” him!
In fact, the Apostle actually believed that God was “for” him!
Because Paul had met Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour! He had been born again (adopted too) into the Family of God!
And even with all the animosity and danger he faced … he still penned … “IF GOD BE FOR US, WHO CAN BE AGAINST US?” Romans 8:31
Problems in life?
They are universal!
Ubiquitous!
Read Job 5:7, a jewel of truth … “Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.”
Yet it apparently depends on the “view” we take of our “troubles.” Better yet, the “view” we take of the Lord Jesus Christ Who is the Son of God and the Occupant of Heaven’s Throne, sitting at the Father’s very Right Hand!
If you have been saved … He is not AGAINST you!
No matter life’s unpredictable turns and twists.
He is, rather, FOR you!
Something Jacob later learned!
Something Job knows by now!
And something that can relive a lot of stress and anxiety if we believe it too.
Again … “IF GOD BE FOR US, WHO CAN BE AGAINST US?”
Hallelujah!
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
How to be saved?
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” John 5:24, Jesus’ Words!
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