“Pastor, is it true that God let’s us pass through challenges because He wants to teach us something?”
No! Rather, He lets us pass through challenges if He discovers that we haven’t learnt something we ought to have learnt.
If you display pride towards someone and cried to God for mercy, He’d forgive you. If you do it again, He’d still forgive you. As a matter of fact, as long as you do not desire something greater that pride can destroy, He’d keep forgiving you each time you cry for mercy for a display of pride. But the moment you ask Him to give you something that your pride may destroy, then you may not get forgiveness the next time you develop pride and cry for mercy.
And this isn’t because He doesn’t want to forgive you and wave the consequences of pride, but you’ve asked Him for something that your pride cannot handle. So He let’s you face the consequences of your pride, and if it has to take you 40 years to deal with that pride, then He’s willing to wait that long before He gives you that great thing you asked for.
This was exactly what happened to the children of Israel. They had not learnt how to trust God, and even though God attempted to make them trust Him ten different times, they still didn’t trust God. Since the journey to Canaan demanded that they trust God, He couldn’t take them directly to Canaan. So a journey that should have taken 40 days took 40 years because they had to deal with their trust issues.
If you notice, most of the families that left Egypt with them perished on the way. They didn’t discern their flaw on time to correct it. This also means that the flaw can lead to your end if you don’t discover and deal with it on time.
I know a Christian who lost her job because of pride. She has always been like that, but somehow God had mercy on her and sustained her in that company. But I believe that the moment she began to pray for another job, God had to make her face the consequences of her pride. The day she was fired, it was almost like all hell broke loose. Those who worked with her couldn’t say any good thing about her. As a matter of fact, some of them said she used her Christianity to oppress them. If it was just one person that made that observation, we might conclude that it’s jealousy, but ninety percent?
Ofcourse, God could have saved her and retained her in that job – as long as she was remorseful, but unfortunately, she asked for something more – which God was also willing to do. But if God did that, her pride may destroy her.
Just because you felt remorseful and cried for mercy doesn’t equal repentance. Repentance is not just about seeking forgiveness from God; it is a deliberate and conscious decision to stop something that affects your relationship with God. So if you go back to that flaw after you received mercy, then you didn’t really repent. God is faithful and just to forgive, but some privileges will remain cut off until you truly repent.
Anytime you pray to God for something and instead of receiving answers you received a rebuke or bad news, and that rebuke seems to tarry for long, this might be the problem. There’s something you need to deal with. The moment you deal with that thing, the breakthrough you seek will come.
So yes, God uses the consequences of your bad choices as an opportunity to train or restrain you. If something bad happens to you, He would not just bail you out, especially if He has always bailed you out cheaply. He’d rather take you through a longer route so you can learn the virtue you’ve been neglecting. If it’s looking like God is delaying, then maybe there’s something you haven’t learnt.
If that’s the case, you can simply ask the Lord to show you the areas you need to work on.
I hope this has brought enlightenment to someone.
Remain ever blessed, in Jesus precious name!
#EmekaAnslem
