I am through hard times. Does it mean God is testing orpunishing me or... I am through hard...

LadyGrace · 70-79

Are you feeling discouraged today? Take heart. God has not forgotten you. There could be many things going on. If or when we sin, and that goes for anybody, we're not being punished. What we may be FEELING are the "consequences" our sin produced.

But then again, it could be something completely other than that. Satan is always trying to lie to us and tell us that God has abandoned us or is punishing us, but He is not! He said he will never leave us nor forsake us and he always keeps his promises. When we repent of our sins he forgets them and he doesn't hold grudges. We learn things when we have to experience things. We learn lots of things like perseverance, patience, gratitude, mercy, many things. Always stay close to God because he always knows what's right and he will always do what's right for us. Sometimes he hesitates to answer because he's working on other people at the other end are doing something else, but never lose faith because he never leaves us and he is always faithful to us.

I'm not saying I have all the answers, yet there are some things I'm sure of at 71, as I do have experience under my belt, I can share. Lots of it. Extremely painful ones, as well as many moments of victory. From those, I know that even though it seems God has abandoned us, nothing could be further from the truth. He even proved that from many witnessed accounts from people who lived in His time period, as they kept record of it. One such account is from the book of Job in the Bible. But before we get to that, I want you to know that God doesn't want us comparing ourselves or our achievements to anyone else. That's because He's got one significant road and assignment on hand, especially fitted for you, and no one else. Therefore, the timing will be a lot different than someone else's, as will your achievements.

The story of Job, tells us that even though we can't feel God's presence at times, we can know he's there. He's always there. I can testify to that. Being human, we like those times when we feel his presence. Satan knows that too well and uses our feelings to his advantage. He whispers in our ear, "So...where's your Godnow?" In this way, his motive is to cause lots of doubt...to freeze and cripple not only our emotions, but our relationship, work, and effectiveness for God. But he forgot one thing, and I'm sure he's taking notes as he reads this over my shoulder. Our God never changes. He's the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. He's not in the abandoning business, as Satan would have us believe. We've witnessed this throughout the Bible. God always rescues His children.

Job suffered horribly, alright. Yet through it all, he showed his heart and faith towards God, and held on by faith and hope. Those two things got him through the suffering and tragedy he was experiencing. By Job holding on with hope and faith, even when he could not feel them, by him exercising that faith, he opened the door that allowed God to act on his behalf. Prayer is the key to heaven, but it's faith that unlocks the door. When we don't have faith, it ties God's hands to act on our behalf. You don't need feelings to have faith. Faith is believing God will answer our prayers, then expecting an answer...and answer, He always does. But in His timing. He knows best.

Was there really nothing Job could do, but have patience? Far from it! The two things Job could do, which changed everything, was to pray and trust God. Believe. Those may not seem like a lot to some, yet they meant everything to Job. Even in all his pain, Job was confident in his heart, God had not abandoned him, and would even see him through. It's not how much confidence you have, but whom you have that confidencein.Job was fully expecting an answer to His prayers and for his rescue, and God provided it. Whenweare faithful,Godis faithful. God never ever abandons His children. He even said, "No man shall pluck you out of My hand." And God always hears our prayers. They never go unnoticed or forgotten. In fact, Psalms 56:8, says He keeps our tears in a jar. That means our prayers and tears are recorded in heaven. That's how precious we are to Him. He always hears our prayers. Psalm 116. Further, not one hair of our head falls, without Him noticing. So take heart my friends. You may not be whereyou'resupposed to be, but God isalwayswhere He's supposed to be.

LadyGrace · 70-79

I felt like you at one time in my life and I talked to my pastor and he said, God is not punishing you. You're only feeling the results of making a bad choice, and from then on I stopped feeling guilty about every little thing and thinking God was punishing me. That was not it at all. When we sin, we reap what we sow. Meaning, that's how we learn, that's all....by making mistakes and making adjustments throughout our lives. If there were no consequences in how we feel we would never learn and we would repeat the same mistakes. God doesn't go about punishing people. But they will feel the consequences of what they did, so they don't repeat the same mistakes. And I came to learn also, not to run away from problems, that way. Instead of being willing to learn something that God was trying to show me I needed help with, I would run away at all costs to avoid it and that was the wrong attitude. When problems come along they are not meant to hurt us. They are to show us where we need Improvement and help. So now I don't dread them because I know God's trying to show me something that needs changing in my life and is not working for me, that's all. He's not wanting to hurt me. He's only wanting to teach me so that I can have a better life instead of avoiding all the problems and sweeping them under the rug. That never works and when we go against the grain that's when we feel the pain. We have to face the situation we are in whatever comes up and then pray about it and ask God what is the best way to handle it. It's not about punishment. So now I face my problems head on, ever since I've learned that lesson long ago. I can guarantee you, you are not being punished. Now you may be in God's waiting room. That's what I call it. While we're in God's waiting room we can learn many valuable lessons. This is the time we need to pray and just wait on God to answer our prayers and also ask him to tell us where we need Improvement and what to do about it. He will always lead us to the right answer. We need to be patient with God when we ask him something and always seek his will and he will not let us down. I can vouch for that. How will you know you're doing the right thing? I pray about things and then really listen to myself. If what I'm wanting to do would not be going against God but would be fulfilling in my life and not go against my gut feeling, then it always works out. We get that gut feeling for a reason. If it feels like we're going against the grain then don't do it. Don't make moves that will make you feel guilty or like you're doing something wrong. If it's God's will, it will feel good. I always ask myself what would Jesus do and that really helps. But right now you may be in God's waiting room and that's when you just pray and then let it go and let God take care of the rest and things will fall in place when they're meant to, but when you get ahead of God and try to fix things yourself, that's when you'll go two or three steps and think you got it right, but then things start to fall apart again, because you didn't wait and listen to God, so you'll have to go back again and wait until you know God is giving you the okay to move forward. He'll let you know when. Certain doors will begin to open for you and won't have to be forced. Things will flow just right. It's important to keep communication with God open and read our Bibles and pray. Not wait until we need something. That's not a way to love God.