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FROM PASTOR'S DESK 2022 Pastor's Desk

That He may teach you warfare | Pst. J.O. Lawal

Often, people wonder why God sometimes allow His children to face certain trials or challenges in life. Could it be because He does not love them? No! Could it be because He does not care enough about them? No! Or could it be because He does not have their best of interests at heart? No! Why, then, does He allow Satan, the archenemy of His children, to confront them with certain trials and temptations that may end up destroying them?

Date: March 13, 2022 | Series: From Pastor’s Desk | Number: Vol. 10, No. 45

Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours forevermore from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Redeemer. Welcome to another week of this month. And may your heart be continually strengthened with adequate boldness to take advantage of God’s grace to walk in victory over whatever challenge you might be confronted with in life, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Often, people wonder why God sometimes allow His children to face certain trials or challenges in life. Could it be because He does not love them? No! Could it be because He does not care enough about them? No! Or could it be because He does not have their best of interests at heart? No! Why, then, does He allow Satan, the archenemy of His children, to confront them with certain trials and temptations that may end up destroying them?

Well, we have very sure answers to these questions in the bible. For example, we are told this in it: “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” (1Cor 10:13NIV) From what we are told here, we can see three major reasons God allows us to face challenges and temptations in life. And the first among them is that there have been people like us that faced whatever challenge or trial we may be currently facing, just as there are people like us that are facing the same nature of challenge or trial we are facing at the moment. So, we should not see any challenge or temptation that comes to us in life as strange or peculiar, for it is not. Instead, we should see it as something common to man.

Another reason God allows us to face these things is that He is in charge of life and the creation as a whole. So, He is able to determine what sort of challenges come to us or do not come to us in life. And He has promised never to let us face any challenge we cannot handle. So, if it comes to you, know that it is because God knows that you can handle it. But will you really be able to handle any trial or challenge that comes your way? Yes, you will. You will because God will see to it that you have all that you need to do so. And that is the third reason He allows trials to come to us. He allows them because He knows that His provisions to walk in victory over them are already available for us.

You can see, then, that none of us should be afraid of confronting life’s trials or challenges. But we are often afraid of confronting them. Why? We want to be comfortable and without any form of distress in life all the time. But the truth is that without being confronted with trials in this life, there are heights we cannot attain, things we cannot accomplish and levels of enjoyment and comfort we cannot experience. And since God knows this, from time to time, He permits certain trials or temptations to flow into our lives. That way, we can learn to take advantage of His grace that is more than sufficient for us to walk in victory over them and occupy the places meant for us in life.

Now look at what is said along this line about how He dealt with the children of Israel:

“These are the nations the LORD left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan (he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience): the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living in the Lebanon mountains from Mount Baal Hermon to Lebo Hamath. They were left to test the Israelites to see whether they would obey the LORD’s commands, which he had given their forefathers through Moses.” (Judg 3:1-4NIV) Did you see that? One of the reasons God left those enemies of Israel around was to teach them warfare. In other words, He left them to teach them to take advantage of His grace. It was up to them, then, to take the word of His grace seriously for their victory over these enemies or to ignore it, to their own defeat, regret and shame.

In like manner, we must learn to think of all our trials as God’s way of teaching us spiritual warfare instead of being afraid of them or giving up on life because of them. Yes, we must think of them all as avenues to take God’s word seriously and utilize His grace for our victory. And as long as we are functioning like this, we will never again be afraid of any trial. Instead, we will always boldly join Paul to take advantage of God’s grace and to say, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”

Do have a great week.

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