Sad to say, a lot of preaching nowadays is about Jesus who will solve all our problems, give us healing and prosperity in every way, etc. But once people come to Jesus hoping for such a life, they are unable to relate to the actual suffering that comes to them in many ways – physical, financial, relational, spiritual, etc. Many people give up their faith in God, thinking that He is not what He is made up to be by Christians.
Real life has ups and downs – mountain top experiences and dark valley experiences. There are consequences of the personal mistakes we all make, there are those who hurt us for their own reasons, there is the chaos we experience in a world that is going away from God, and there are attacks from Satan. It is natural for us to wonder why bad things are happening to us who have God as our Father, while wicked people seem to be enjoying their life (Job.30:26;Ps.73:2,3).
But we do have a Father who is known for His love (1Jn.4:16). He never changes (Mal.3:6). He is always the same in His character (He.13:8). The more we know Him personally, the more we get to see His unchanging and trustworthy nature. We can rely on Him.
But when we go through times of darkness it is difficult for us to continue to trust in Him. What we experience in terms of trouble seems to be more real to us than the thoughts about God who seems to be far away and unreal. We are even tempted to decide that our faith in God and our experiences with God may have been imaginary. Then we become ready to give up.
The fact is, the only way to experience God is through faith, and the only way to know God more is by getting our faith to become stronger. Our faith can become stronger only when we are stretched beyond our present levels of faith and when we are forced to rely on faith alone and not on what we can feel or see. So, when we stand in darkness, not knowing what the future is going to bring, wondering what God is planning to do, we get an opportunity to assert our faith in God and tell ourselves that He will see us through. We are not saying that God will do what we want, but that we are willing to trust God and let Him do what He wants with us. When we make that decision, we find that 'light' will come into our heart, comforting, strengthening and encouraging us, and then our thoughts and feelings will also experience the results of that light. Even if the situation does not change immediately, we get an assurance that we are safe in God's hands (Ps.112:4).
One mistake we make is to expect light in our situations and no darkness. But God is more interested in giving us light in our heart, and when that happens our life is blessed even when we are still in darkness as far as our situation is concerned. This is to walk by faith and not by sight, and this is to be more than just conquerors. At the end, what we have gained in terms of spiritual wealth will be far greater than all the physical suffering we went through (Job.42:12).