Why?

2 Corinthians 1:9 "But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:"

Because of our eternal perspective, Christians often try and find meaning when difficult things happen in our lives. Paul and his believers had a sentence of death hanging over their heads and the same question occurred to them that occurs to us so often - why? Why would God allow this to happen?

I've heard life compared to a tapestry. If you look at it from the back, it looks like a mess of tangled, multi-colored threads with no rhyme or reason. Yet if you look at it from the front, the design is clear and beautiful. While on earth in our fleshly bodies, we're stuck seeing life from the back. But when we get to Heaven, we will see if from the front, from God's point of view. But nevertheless, that nagging question still comes - why? Why would God allow a child to die? Why would God allow me to get this disease? Why would God allow me to lose my job? Why would God allow me to be persecuted and sentenced to death?

Paul had an answer - God allows these things in our lives so that we would lose all faith and trust in ourselves, and instead, put all our faith and trust in the One Who has the power over life and death itself. We know that faith and trust without action is dead. So God brings these difficult circumstances in our lives to give us the opportunity to act on what we say we believe.

What are you wondering 'why' about today? Have you been trusting in yourself instead of the God Who raises the dead?