The view of being awaken to the truth
When the painful things keep on happening to us, our spirit goes down. I had suffered many difficult trials since I my childhood. They started with poverty, bullying and loneliness. I lost my confidence in myself, and my school years were very dim. So many times I thought “why do I have to suffer so much?”
However, since I believed in Jesus Christ, I started to read the Bible. And it had changed my thinking. In the Bible, it says “Because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son. (Hebrews 12:6 NIV)”
As we believe Jesus Christ, we become “children of God” (John 1:12), and God becomes our Father. If we face much trials, that means God is not being malicious, but rather, he is “disciplining” us, and those are “punishments” for us to grow. I started to understand this meaning, as I started to raise my son. My son loves bread, and tries to eat only bread. However for his benefit, his diet also requires vegetables and other food that he does not like. He rejects eating such food, but I patiently feed them even he spits them out or he cries. I am not bullying him. I do it because he is so precious to me that I wish him to grow strong and big.
As I changed my point of view, then it also changed my understanding. Trials are painful things, yet the way I accept those trials has changed. Before knowing the Bible, I always thought “Why me?” Yet now, it is rather the opposite. “I have been accepted as a child of God. These trials are the proof of his love.”
God has a plan for each of us. Even we face difficult trials, the Bible releases us from unhappiness, and allows us to look up and hope for God.
Youth PastorKenshiro Goto
