Doing Right, When it Looks Like God is Doing you Wrong

When you are in the wilderness, it is inevitable that you will face circumstances and situations where it looks like God has really let you down, and it can draw all of your old buried anger, resentment, and animosity against Him right to the surface. Plus Satan will be right there to accuse God of child abuse and he will pat you on your shoulder and say "How can God treat you like this? Especially after all you've sacrificed for Him, and put up with for His sake. God will always let you down when you trust Him, and He just wants to control your life so that He can harm you!" So we may let it all come pouring out and vent all of our pain, resentment, and disappointment at Him. But it is how we express our feelings toward God that makes or breaks us as His servants. God will allow trials to come along in our wilderness time to test us, and to expose the lies that have been lurking inside us. He does this to show us the truth about our condition so that we can repent, but also He wants our faith to rest upon who He is, rather than on whatever good or bad things that happen in our lives. God understands that we have emotions, but He expects us to hang onto the truth about who He is. Grumbling just sees the problem and complains, whereas faith prays and trusts in God's character to find the answer.

We tend to be willing to put up with a lot in our wilderness, but there are some basic needs and demands that we feel that God is required to meet. When it doesn't happen in the way or timing that we think, we can get a bad attitude pretty fast. Comparing yourself to others situations, and self-pity can be real joy killers in the wilderness, but when you see who God really is, how He loves you, and you remember what He has done in the past, the problem no longer seems to be so big. God just waits for your honest response and then He moves. He is not being lazy, mean, or cruel, He just needs to show you where you are really at with your faith in Him. God is in fact trustworthy, even when things happen that could easily be misinterpreted as God being neglectful, uncaring, or abusive toward you. The main areas you can expect to have the hardest time with are your basic needs that you feel God is obligated to meet like your health, your family, your bills, food, water, housing, looking respectful in front of others, and so on. These are things that we feel are "automatic" needs that God should meet, and when that line has been crossed you will have to face how much or how little faith you really have in Him. You have two choices, you can either get mad at God, or you can trust in who He sais that He is.

What happens when you get sick and have no medical care, or when you have to live in pain because of a bad tooth and can't get it fixed right away? What happens when you get an eviction notice or when they are turning off your power, lights, and telephone? What happens when you thought God was going to do something to bless you, or rescue you out of a problem, and it doesn't happen that way? What happens when you look like a loser to in front of other people and God doesn't allow them to understand what He is doing in your life? What happens if your family has to suffer because of all this? What happens if someone you love and need suddenly dies or your mate walks out on you, commits adultery, or divorces you? I know this sounds like a lot of "what if's"; but in the wilderness, you will have every area of your heart tested and purified so that your faith will rest upon God's word and character alone, and not on anything else. When your faith rests on who God is, and not on just what happens around you, nothing can shake your faith anymore. Then you become safe for God to use on a greater scale because now you cannot be tempted to grumble and complain against the Lord like you used to be in the past.