"Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backsliding shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord of Host"(Jeremiah 2:19).
Life has made us see challenges and problems as important parts of life that give us experiences, make us learn and help us to become wiser and stronger. We believe that problems make us grow and shape us.
I met a friend when i went for my National Youth Service Corp. Whenever we talk about challenges and problems this friend of mine was always astonished and she would just be looking at us. So one Sunday we decided to go to church for thanksgiving and we were given few minutes each to share our testimonies. When my lady came out, she said she just want to thank God because she had never experience challenges in her life since she was born and that whenever people complain or talk about bad experiences she is usually confused because she can't imagine things like that happening to people. So she is learning from people and kept praying to God not to let her experience challenges in life.
Believe me at that moment i paused and was asking myself what is different between us. Why should i experience pains and reproach? Why should some people see challenges as part of life? These questions i have asked myself for so long until i came across the above scripture.
God always want the best for us. Over time i have discovered that the people that got rooted in Christ early hardly experience bad challenges in life. I have watched many that have been on the Lord's side from childhood, or when they were teenagers and i noticed that they hardly experience bad challenges. It was this discovery that made me understood the difference between us as individuals in life.
From the above scripture, here are three points that set challenges in the life of man.
1. Weekedness
Wickedness can be in different forms. It is a wicked thing when we fail to acknowledge God in life. The Lord was clear from the verse above that He will allow the wickedness of man to correct him. Challenges can set in if you show wickedness to God. In order for God to make you realize that what you are doing is wicked, He allow challenges similar as your habit to set in so you can be corrected.
2. Backsliding.
"But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God"(Luke 9:62). Backsliding is a very dangerous root to take in life. The devil's mission is to kill, to steal and destroy and the minute he takes a person out of God'presence, challenges will set in and if the individual is not careful it might lead to death. When the devil finish stealing treasures from an individual and try his possible best to take that life. That is when he pushes some people to commit suicide or afflict a life with deadly disease.
3. Lack of Fear of God.
The Bible say the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. If you lack fear of God, you invite the devil into you life and when the devil has a sit in the life of man, challenges will be part of the victim. The fear of God puts you inline with God's word, plans and purpose.
The above scripture is always a clear indication that we learn, and we are corrected through our challenges in life. If you realize on time that Sin is what has created problems in your life, it means you already have a solution and the solution is separation from sin and let God into your life.
I think one of the greatest misconception about challenges is that we keep hearing from “the prison to the palace” and people assume that overnight they can get what they want anyhow. Facing challenges to the point of breaking out has processes.
There is a lot of learning, training, serving and suffering that would go on prior to that. You can’t short change the process. You just can't. If you do without understanding what exactly God want you to learn, the Lord will bring you back to that lesson and if you refuse to and do it your own way, it might lead you to a bigger challenge or fix you into bondage.
Alot of people today have exchanged their glories with the devil because they didn't go through the process. They were so impatience with things that they decided to pave a way for themselves. Self actions have led so many into worshipping of idols and other terribles things including rituals, stealing, prostitution, killing, 419, and so on.
Meanwhile, placing them in greater bondage. Now GOD can do anything He wants and make you skip steps and accelerate you through a process but you still need to start somewhere and with faithfulness, He will move you.
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