Devotional

Why Is Life So Hard?

Everything seems to be a battle. Nothing is easy. The fact is, life is difficult.

So, why is life so hard in this world?

The Bible says rebellion against God broke everything.

It all started back with the first couple, Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden. When God created the world, everything was perfect. It was paradise. And Adam and Eve had no problems, suffering, sadness, temptations, or troubles.

But one day Adam and Eve decided that they wanted to do what they wanted to do. God told them, “You can do anything you want to in this paradise except one thing.” And what did Adam and Eve do? The one thing God told them not to do.

Why did he even give them a choice? Because without a choice, they couldn’t choose to love God. If you’re forced to love God, then it’s not real love.

Before sin, there was no death in the world. There was no sadness in the world. There was no sorrow. There was no difficulty in the world. People would not die. Adam and Eve could have lived forever as long as it was a perfect environment. It was only when everything got broken that sin brought death into the world.

Adam and Eve weren’t the only ones who made that choice. I’ve made it, you’ve made it, and everybody else in the world has made it. We have all said, “I don’t want to do the right thing; I want to do the easy thing.” We’ve all said, “I don’t want to say the truth; I want to say what’s convenient.” We’ve all said, “I don’t want to be what God wants me to be; I want to be what I want to be.” We’ve all done this.

We have all broken God’s laws. We have all rebelled by sins, transgressions, and iniquities. And that’s why nothing works correctly — your marriage, your health, your finances, your body, your relationships. Nothing works correctly, because sin broke everything.

When you understand why life in the world is so hard, you’re no longer going to be surprised by it. You’re not going to be surprised when things don’t go your way. You’re not going to be surprised when plans don’t pan out. You’re not going to be surprised when things actually go bad. And you will be able to handle the hard times of life much more easily.

So why is life so hard? Why do we suffer? Why is everything a battle? The answer is that rebellion against God broke everything.

This devotional © 2014 by Rick Warren. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Advertisement

Devotional

Is God real?

Here Jesus has an interaction with a career soldier that leaves Jesus “amazed.” Wouldn’t you love to say or do something that amazes the most amazing person who ever walked the earth? At the heart of the officer’s startling response to Jesus is a simple truth: He believes Jesus is God. That means he believes Jesus has both the power and authority to do the impossible—to heal his beloved servant who is “sick and near death.” Only God can do such a thing, and the centurion knows it. So he does something that delights Jesus: He simply acts on what he knows to be true and asks Jesus for the kind of help only God can give.

Devotional

What’s my purpose in life?

When Jesus recruits his first followers—a close-knit group of small-business owners who run a fishing operation—he dangles his own enticing bait: “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” Like most people, these men identify themselves by their occupation—what we do defines who we are. So Jesus is appealing to the deepest place in their soul—the place where their identity lives—when he offers to reorient their purpose in life. What if, he asks, you could trade your small dreams for a big dream?

What if you were created to be a source, through me, of rescue and redemptive hope for others—to capture them from a dark sea of hopelessness and drag them into a boat of refuge, where they can find the life they were created to live? Our purpose in life is to love God with all that we are, and to love others with the same passion that Jesus has for them. We are all created to “fish for people,” no matter what our particular calling in life is.

Q?

https://www.gotquestions.org/what-is-a-Christian.html