Today’s 333 Devotional: “Trusting God Though Life’s Unfairness”

How can we trust that God knows what’s best when what we consider to be our best isn’t being met?

The things that happened to the Apostle Paul, that is, being stoned, shipwrecked, imprisoned, beaten, lied about, and conspired against, was this God’s best for his life? And first glance we could easily say, “No.”

Then, was what happened to Paul God’s payback for when Paul was Saul and persecuted the church, putting believers in jail, or having them beaten and put to death? Again the answer is, “No.”

Instead, through what Paul was going through, Satan was trying to break him, just as Satan is trying to break us and get us to renounce our faith and return to our former lives.

We see the same in Job’s life. How God allowed Satan to take everything away from Job, his family, possessions, and health, because Satan said that Job would curse God as a result.

But God was testing Job, and was allowing Paul to go through these difficult times to stretch his faith, but not to the point of breaking.

This promise is found in God’s word.

First, it is found in what the prophet Isaiah said, which was quoted of Jesus mission in Matthew 12:20.

“He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle.” (Isaiah 42:3)

Paul talked about this as well saying how the God’s message is contained in these fragile bodies so that the God’s power can be manifested through what we go through.

“We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed–always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-10)

And so, while we may be stretched, we will never be broken. Therefore, we can trust God in whatever we’re going through.