Did God Promise A Rose Garden?

Job wasn't surprised that God dealt him a hand of trouble for he said, "Shall we accept good at the hand of God and not evil?" Surely, one can postulate that our life is no bed of roses; but don't get a martyr's complex either. However, everything that happens is Father-filtered and Isaiah says, "When you [not if you] pass through the waters I will be with you." Jesus says, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." Charlie Riggs says that"adversity builds character and Christlikeness."  Indeed, adversity is the crucible that prepares us and helps us to share in the holiness of God, as Paul referred to the "fellowship of His sufferings."

Rabbi Harald Kushner wrote a book, Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People? Well, they happen to bad people too! But the point is that there are no good people either. Adversity, discipline, suffering, trials, grief, heartache, and even ordeals and tragedy can happen to any Christian. Christ didn't exempt himself from suffering and was honest enough to warn us of it. Trouble inevitably comes to all believers: "Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward" (cf.Job 5:7). The Psalmist says, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous..." (cf. Psalm 34:19). Riggs says that Hardship is part of the divine curriculum, part of Reality 101, as it were.

The famous Viennese Psychiatrist, Viktor Frankl, was in a concentration camp known as Dachau and Riggs points out that the secret to his success in enduring was that he had a purpose (if you have a why you can endure the how); we can endure anything if we have hope! What they say as a cliche is that it is not what happens to you, but in you; you either become bitter or better.

We may have a "thorn in the flesh" like Paul and we are to remember that God works everything together for our good (cf. Rom. 8:28). Phil. 1:29 says, "For it has been granted unto you not only to believe in Christ but to suffer for His name." Even "Christ "learned obedience from what he suffered." C. S. Lewis says, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, but shouts to us in our pain."
As a matter of discipline per Heb. 12: 5-6 and Prov. 3: 11-12 and Job 5:17, God is pruning and not punishing us. "It is good that I was afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes;" "Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your Word" (cf. Psalms 119: 71, 67).

"Lay out the welcome mat" and rejoice with thanksgiving at trouble--no problem! Negative stress is good for you. "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice" (cf. Phil 4:4). Remember, God sees the long-term advantage and result, and we must keep the faith. Our walk is at stake and the Lord will "lead us in the path of righteousness for His namesake [our testimony]."

As an illustration, Riggs mentions a sculptor making a horse out of a stone; "How can you make a horse out of that? One inquires. "Oh, I just chip away at anything that doesn't look like a horse." God does likewise with us. To sum it all up, I quote Job 23: 10. "But he knows the way that I take when He has tried me I shall come forth as gold." In sum, God promises no bed of roses, but don't get a martyr's complex either, thinking the more you suffer, the better saint you are.   Soli Deo Gloria!