For the longest time, I asked, "why". WHY am I being punished? WHAT did I do that was so bad to deserve this? WHAT DID I DO WRONG??? I asked those questions repeatedly. Year after year, after year, after year. Then one day, finally, I realized something. Just, poof, out of the blue, it HIT me.
It was around the time where I was giving an unusual amount of thought to how many people in this world there are that blame God for their loss, & for their misery. In a nut shell, how all these people tend to think of God as some sort of bored, & overly cruel type of wizard who acts on whims to decide who is going to have a loved one ripped from their life, or lose their job, or not have any friends, whatever.
For the first time in my entire life, about a year or so back now, I came into some information. Ordinarily, when I say the types of things that I'm about to say, I would most ASSUREDLY include the scriptures for where I'm getting that information FROM, but..... I am going to have to come back to this post, & edit it to include those scriptures at a later time because right now - I honestly can't remember where they are. So for now, I'm just going to summarize what that information is. As I said, I'll come back later to include the scriptures of where that information comes from. Okay? Okay.
As I said, I NEVER had this information before, so it really rocked my world as it began to sink in for me, & I began to really give it some thought. You see, apparently, it is NOT God that does the things to us that hurts us, or that makes our lives harder than they already are in some other way. No.... THIS is how it works, ya'll. Satan goes to God. Satan asks God's PERMISSION to do those things to us. God either says "yay or nay" to satan's request. It is satan that does those things to us. NOT God. So, for starters, we ALL need to stop blaming God for the various miseries, & overly difficult struggles in our lives on this earth. That's FIRST!
As that much sank in for me, I THEN started wondering WHY would God EVER give satan permission to harm any of His children, or to burden them further, & make their lives on this earth even MORE difficult. I wondered that for quite awhile, actually. Eventually, the answer hit me. God ALLOWS satan to do the things he does to God's children beCAUSE those are OPPORTUNITIES for God's children to prove their faith, & or to GROW in Jesus. Think about it for a minute.
If a student in a class room never does any homework, never answers any questions, never even so much as cracks a book, YET the teacher keeps giving that student As on a silver platter - for NO effort on that student's part.... Did the student EARN those As? No. Why? Because the student didn't do any of the work that's required TO earn those As. Does that student LEARN anything in that type of a class room? No. Why? Because the child isn't doing anything TO learn.
In order for a child to grow - the child HAS to be challenged. SOMEthing HAS to take place in order for the child to take initiative to learn, & to grow.
Therefore.... In order for God's children to learn, & to grow - they HAVE to be challenged / tested. That's just how it is. And FOR those challenges / tests to transpire - satan has to get permission FROM God TO "test" that child.
It was the story of Job that really brought all that home for me. Remember Job? Remember how much satan took from him, including his very own health, & the lives of his family? Remember all that? Well, in order for those things to happen in the first place, satan had to get permission from God. Satan bet God that Job would crack, but God was betting on Job to persevere, overcome, & walk even closer with God no matter WHAT satan took from Job. God won the bet, ya'll. Never gamble with God, & never bet AGAINST God! When satan had done all that he could think to do to Job, short of taking Job's very life itself, God BLESSED Job! He rewarded Job's FAITH, & Job's STRENGTH. Job was QUITE a man! He EARNED God's blessing! Most definitely!
In closing, I would like to say that my perspective on the misery of my existence has changed because of all that. I no longer ask, "WHY am I being punished / WHAT did I do that was so bad to deserve this / WHAT DID I DO WRONG". No. Those questions were the questions of an IGNORANT fool. My bad, 100%! Instead, now that I have a better grasp of how it all works, & what the reasons behind it are, my questions have changed. "WHAT are you trying to teach me, Lord? WHAT am I missing here, Father?" Which, I have to say this, those new questions I ask are, in a weird way, kind of like taking the bull by the horns, if you know what I mean. Like, I'M taking a type of responsibility for WHY I am in the position I am in. Even though I'm not the one that asked God to let satan torment me - it's still ME that's being tormented, so.... I am the one that is supposed to be learning something, therefore the onus is upon ME to ask the questions. Right? Make sense?