God is with you in your Trouble

This life can be hard. 

You and I did not ask to be born. You could not choose where or when you would grow up. 

Did your parents separate when you were young? You felt abandoned and insecure. In your child’s mind, you thought it was your fault, but it was not.

Was your home a battle ground when your parents were fighting? 
It was not your fault.

People often cry out for God but feel He is far away.

"Where was God when I was bullied and beaten up?"

God looked down and saw our suffering and He felt our pain. 

He wanted to help, and He had a plan. We humans have made a mess of this planet but we did not take God by surprise. 

Before the creation of the world, God saw everything that would happen and all the bad choices we would make. He knew how tough it would be and He decided to go ahead and create the world. 

4  Long ago, even before he made the world, God chose us to be his very own through what Christ would do for us; he decided then to make us holy in his eyes, without a single fault—we who stand before him covered with his love. 

5  His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by sending Jesus Christ to die for us. And he did this because he wanted to! Ephesians 1:4-5 (TLB) 

When you trust in Jesus Christ to give you a new life, He forgives all the wrong you have done, all the pain you have brought on other people and He gives you a new start in life.

Does God take away all your troubles and give you a life without problems? 

Sometimes we wish it was like this but it is not. But God is with you in all your troubles

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 

who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (NIV) 

These words were written by the Apostle Paul. He knew what he was talking about.

2 Corinthians 11:24-27 (TLB) 
24  Five different times the Jews gave me their terrible thirty-nine lashes. 

25  Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I was in the open sea all night and the whole next day. 

26  I have travelled many weary miles and have been often in great danger from flooded rivers and from robbers and from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the hands of the Gentiles. I have faced grave dangers from mobs in the cities and from death in the deserts and in the stormy seas and from men who claim to be brothers in Christ but are not. 

27  I have lived with weariness and pain and sleepless nights. Often I have been hungry and thirsty and have gone without food; often I have shivered with cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm. 

Jesus never promised us a life free of suffering but He promised to be with us forever and to save us from all our troubles.

Every time Paul was beaten and broken, God healed him, raised him up and gave him the strength to go on. 

If you love and serve Jesus, He will do the same for you.

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 

and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" John 11:25-26 (NIV) 

An Atheist Discovers the Other Side

Simon was 54, a successful American professor with no need for God, a confident atheist. 

He was in his hotel room in London preparing for his flight back home when he was troubled by a stomach ache. Nothing unusual. 

But the stomach ache quickly became agony and he was rushed to hospital for an emergency operation.

Then his world began to crumble. A young doctor told him no surgeons were available until next morning. 

He was so happy with his wonderful career and his loving wife sitting by his bed but how could his atheism help him now?

He thought of his Christian childhood. He had abandoned his faith and become wise but what if it was all true? What if there really was a heaven and a hell? What would happen to him now?

He felt that his time had come. He lovingly said goodbye to his dear wife of thirty years, closed his eyes and fell unconscious.

But that was not the end after all. 

He was outside his body next to his wife. This didn’t make sense to his rational mind at all. He had no more pain. He see and hear and think clearly but no one could see or hear him.

Then the voices called him to another place. He saw people in uniforms and he thought they were medical staff calling him. 

When he followed them, he found himself in a dark unknown space. The men and women in uniform became evil beings, tormenting him ceaselessly.

He was helpless. 

In despair he cried out to the God of his childhood faith. Even though he still doubted, he had no other escape. 

Every time he shouted “God” the evil spirits retreated in dismay. 

Finally he lay alone, wounded and in pain, though not the pain from his sick body.

He was no more the strong atheist, no longer the proud intellectual. 

He saw his selfish character and he was ashamed of the way he had lived only for himself and treated other people so badly.

Then he saw himself in a vision, a boy singing happily in church.

“Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

The vision faded and he began calling out to Jesus to save him. He was still full of doubt but who else could save him?

He began so see a light, which came closer and became brighter until he was engulfed by the loving presence of Jesus. 

God never forgets the love and trust of his children. Jesus is the good shepherd to goes out to rescue his lost sheep who have wandered away.

Simon’s parents took him to church. No doubt his mother prayed for him and God did not forget her prayers. 

Never stop praying and believing for your lost children, you brothers and sisters or your parents.

I prayed for my parents for many years before they believed in old age as death was knocking on their door.

Simon saw three angels who had been guarding him all though his life. Simon had left God but God had not abandoned him.

Simon longed to stay with Jesus and the angels but Jesus lovingly sent him back to his beloved wife and children. 

God had plans for Simon’s new life on this planet, a different life, a life of faith and fulfilment, loving God and helping other people.

When Simon opened his eyes, a surgeon was massaging his heart. 

When you have a real encounter with the Son of God, you can never be the same again.

For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." John 6:40 (NIV) 

Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." John 20:29 (NIV) 

You can encounter Jesus even if you don’t see Him. It is a choice. 

Will you cry out to Jesus as Simon did? Jesus will not let you down.

This blog post is a summary of a chapter in a book by Gabriel Toscani, which I read in German. If anyone can find an English edition. Please let me know.

Toscani, Gabriel. Und dann war Licht: 35 Menschen, die alle klinisch tot waren, erzählen, was sie "auf der anderen Seite" gesehen und erlebt haben. Einige waren im Paradies, andere in der Hölle.  Kindle Edition. 

“And then there was Light: 35 people who were all clinically dead, tell us what they saw  and experienced “on the other side.” Some were in Paradise and others in Hell.”