Bad things can happen to good people, but there are really no good people, of course. The issue should be why good things happen to bad people. We should be thankful to God for all His grace that we don't deserve, in everything--"He gives us richly all things to enjoy" according to 1 Tim. 6:17. Trials are inevitable and Christ was honest enough to warn us, and even count the cost of discipleship--it would be no bed of roses or rose garden.
But don't get a martyr's complex and associate suffering with inherent spirituality--some is merely reaping what we sow and divine discipline and pruning--not punishment. We are not saved by martyrdom. It is no indicator of spirituality. We should never equate the two! People who feel persecuted or have this martyr's complex think that the more they suffer, the more spiritual they are. We should rejoice in suffering that God has trusted us and believes in us enough to give it to us--suffering brings about and yields character and Christlikeness. It's like a sculptor who makes a figure out of a block of granite by chipping away at everything that doesn't look like the subject--God wants to rid our character of everything that doesn't reflect the Son. \We are works in progress!
It's also good to feel so bad, even depressed and melancholy so that we can relate to reality and put life in proper perspective. We can say that we've been there and done that and console others in their troubles. Otherwise, you would always think everything was fine; the Christian life isn't Polyanna or always Cloud Nine or on a spiritual and perpetual high. . If life were a trip or always on cloud nine, we wouldn't learn anything. The school of hard knocks is experiencing hardship by definition, not luxury.
No one ought to be on "Easy Street." Discipleship is the way, less traveled, not going with the crowd, and following the beat of a different drum. Case in point: If we never felt guilty, we would always feel we had met our expectations and standards, and never get convicted of sin--it's sort of a warning that is built into our nature as part of our conscience--and God can be speaking to us through this. C. S. Lewis said that "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts at us in our pains, it is God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world." . Sometimes we need a wake-up call or to be alarmed so that we realize everything isn't hunky-dory in our relationship with God
All of our trials, tribulations, discipline, temptations, tests, sufferings, and crises are Father-filtered and have a divine purpose to make us better people. Our experience is not happening to us but in us. It's what we do with our experiences that counts. No one is exempt from troubles, Christ didn't even exempt Himself and He surely didn't deserve any of it and suffered far more than we are called to do in carrying our cross or the thorn in our side. It is just so that we can identify with Christ more and have more in common, as we can relate and realize what He did on our behalf as the perfect expression of divine love.
In conclusion, guilt is real, though the psychiatrist may deny it and rationalize it away, and the only way to be free from it is by forgiveness--and Christ is able to do this as the only Savior of the world from our sins. As a priest, he saves us from the penalty and guilt, and as prophet gives us the knowledge and awareness of sin and saves us from ignorance of sin, and asking he saves us from the tyranny and dominion of sin.
Sigmund Freud popularized the concept of a "guilt complex" and thought it was a neurosis to be treated, and not real. You can be forgiven for a sin, but only Christ can heal and wipe away the tears and guilt to set us free. One thing pop-psychology will tell you is that there is no ultimate meaning in suffering; this is controverted by Scripture. Our suffering is tailor-made for us by our loving Father and is for our best. We ought to rejoice even in our sufferings like Paul did in the jail with Silas in Acts 16. Soli Deo Gloria!
But don't get a martyr's complex and associate suffering with inherent spirituality--some is merely reaping what we sow and divine discipline and pruning--not punishment. We are not saved by martyrdom. It is no indicator of spirituality. We should never equate the two! People who feel persecuted or have this martyr's complex think that the more they suffer, the more spiritual they are. We should rejoice in suffering that God has trusted us and believes in us enough to give it to us--suffering brings about and yields character and Christlikeness. It's like a sculptor who makes a figure out of a block of granite by chipping away at everything that doesn't look like the subject--God wants to rid our character of everything that doesn't reflect the Son. \We are works in progress!
It's also good to feel so bad, even depressed and melancholy so that we can relate to reality and put life in proper perspective. We can say that we've been there and done that and console others in their troubles. Otherwise, you would always think everything was fine; the Christian life isn't Polyanna or always Cloud Nine or on a spiritual and perpetual high. . If life were a trip or always on cloud nine, we wouldn't learn anything. The school of hard knocks is experiencing hardship by definition, not luxury.
No one ought to be on "Easy Street." Discipleship is the way, less traveled, not going with the crowd, and following the beat of a different drum. Case in point: If we never felt guilty, we would always feel we had met our expectations and standards, and never get convicted of sin--it's sort of a warning that is built into our nature as part of our conscience--and God can be speaking to us through this. C. S. Lewis said that "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts at us in our pains, it is God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world." . Sometimes we need a wake-up call or to be alarmed so that we realize everything isn't hunky-dory in our relationship with God
All of our trials, tribulations, discipline, temptations, tests, sufferings, and crises are Father-filtered and have a divine purpose to make us better people. Our experience is not happening to us but in us. It's what we do with our experiences that counts. No one is exempt from troubles, Christ didn't even exempt Himself and He surely didn't deserve any of it and suffered far more than we are called to do in carrying our cross or the thorn in our side. It is just so that we can identify with Christ more and have more in common, as we can relate and realize what He did on our behalf as the perfect expression of divine love.
In conclusion, guilt is real, though the psychiatrist may deny it and rationalize it away, and the only way to be free from it is by forgiveness--and Christ is able to do this as the only Savior of the world from our sins. As a priest, he saves us from the penalty and guilt, and as prophet gives us the knowledge and awareness of sin and saves us from ignorance of sin, and asking he saves us from the tyranny and dominion of sin.
Sigmund Freud popularized the concept of a "guilt complex" and thought it was a neurosis to be treated, and not real. You can be forgiven for a sin, but only Christ can heal and wipe away the tears and guilt to set us free. One thing pop-psychology will tell you is that there is no ultimate meaning in suffering; this is controverted by Scripture. Our suffering is tailor-made for us by our loving Father and is for our best. We ought to rejoice even in our sufferings like Paul did in the jail with Silas in Acts 16. Soli Deo Gloria!
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