What do you do when things don’t go according to plan in your life?
What do you do when what you were trusting God for doesn’t happen?
What do you do when it feels like God has abandoned you?
Do you think there are some instances where God is to blame for some of the
things that have not worked out in your life?
I have had to deal with these questions in my life. There have been times I
have blamed God. These are hard questions but questions which need to be
answered. As I had these questions God spoke to me through Joshua.
He had just come from the defeat of Jericho. God had given them a big victory. The
next town they had to attack was called Ai. It was a small town. Joshua 7:3
says,
And they returned to Joshua and said to him, Let not all the men go up; but
let about two thousand or three thousand go up and attack Ai; do not make
the whole army toil up there, for they of Ai are few.
It was supposed to be a sure victory but it wasn’t. They were defeated!
They had never experienced defeat before. They even experienced death which
was a new thing! Joshua 7:5 says,
And the men of Ai killed about thirty-six of them, for they chased them
from before the gate as far as Shebarim, and slew them at the descent. And
the hearts of the people melted and became as water.
To top that off, all the surrounding nations would now try and attack
Israel. They heard about all the miraculous things God did for them but if
they heard about the defeat at Ai they would surely come to destroy them!
Joshua acted quickly. He went up to God. Joshua 7:6-8;
Then Joshua rent his clothes and lay on the earth upon his face before
the ark of the Lord until evening, he and the elders of Israel; and they
put dust on their heads.
Joshua said, Alas, O Lord God, why have You brought this people over the
Jordan at all only to give us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us?
Would that we had been content to dwell beyond the Jordan!
O Lord, what can I say, now that Israel has turned to flee before their
enemies!
Joshua blamed God! There is no other way to put it. I am not going to try
and be euphemistic here. He blamed God…..But I understand, I have been
there. When things have gone so bad that you feel like God has abandoned
you, when you feel like God deliberately did something to hurt you. Have
you been there, or maybe you ARE there! I want you to know,
be defeated. That was never in His plan. God is a good God who only has
good in store for us. The fault was in Achan. He went against what God had
told him to do. (Joshua 7:11)
This story raises a very important point. God is not to be blamed for what goes
wrong in our lives. His plan for us is ALL good. ALL GOOD!!! Yes that may entail
trials, and tribulation, and tests and so forth but God is not the author
of the pain, brokenness, disappointment we face in life. He has a destiny
for us. He has a plan for our lives and that plan is good. HE CAN BE
TRUSTED!!!
I don’t write this for the sake of writing a good post. This is what I believe. God is not
kingspeech 