What A World! What A World!

 “God changes caterpillars into butterflies, sand into pearls, and coal into diamonds using time and pressure. He is doing the same with you.” Rick Warren.  This was a recent post on facebook by the author of “The Purpose Driven Life” after his beloved son committed suicide a few weeks ago.. No one lives a golden life. Suffering is inevitable.


I have truly sought God about many sorrowful situations and experiences in my life. I have received heart lifting revelation from Him many times; however my family and I have been traveling a path of emotional suffering the past few years that is unjust and beyond our control. You know how Paul the Apostle said he had learned to be content in all things? Well, I’m not there.

People of faith have suffered for their beliefs for centuries, like Paul. Harder to accept are situations like that of Corri Ten Boom, who suffered innocently at the hands of a brutal government and cruel people, Of course, Corri Ten Boom had a magnificent testimony and ministry after she was freed from Ravensbruck. Now, her story is an inspiration and the good God brought from her suffering is visible for all to see, but only God knew the end from the beginning.




One afternoon as I was mulling over why bad things happen to good people, The Lord spoke to my heart, “The question is not will you suffer unjustly. The question is when you suffer unjustly, how will you suffer?”  Then the Words, “your prayers aren’t answered because you ask amiss” came into my mind. Trust me; at that particular moment, nothing in me would have sought comfort through The Book of James, but I knew I wasn’t being comforted. I was being instructed, so I picked up my Bible. 

James adds that we ask amiss “to use it for your own lusts”. The word ‘amiss’ is translated ‘sick’ and literally means twisted. James is saying we are praying to God for something from a twisted, “sick” perspective because our prayers are being driven by what we want. I was only praying for fairness, for justice, I reasoned. I have hated unfairness all my life. I thought God did too.



That morning God showed me that He isn’t fair- He is RIGHT! God’s ways aren’t our ways. Can I accept as right what He allows to happen, or doesn’t prevent from happening, when it is unfair? When it brings suffering? My part in His Kingdom coming on earth as it is in Heaven, as always, is to follow Jesus’ example.

I Peter 2:21-23 says, “For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in His steps. He never sinned, never deceived anyone. He did not retaliate when He suffered. He left His case in the hands of God who always judges fairly.” 

God immediately had me change “fairly” to “RIGHTLY” in my thinking. Fairness is a human concept. God doesn’t need to be fair, because in God’s Kingdom, only God knows what is right. So when we pray thinking we know what is right, we are always wrong!




Peter goes on to say, once we were like dumb sheep, wandering away in directions we thought would bring us what we wanted, but now we have turned to our Shepherd-The Guardian of our souls, who knows what we need rightly. 

A guardian is the one charged with the duty of seeing that things to be done by others are done rightly! No joke!  It’s right there in Strong’s! What a revelation! We may not understand anything about our situation, but the only way we can be right in any way is by following Jesus our Shepherd every step of the way.


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