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Even though satan is able to entice and tempt people inorder to influence events in this world, he still does not have the power to force you to do anything. He cannot harm or hurt you in any way. He cannot read your mind or see into your heart.

WHY BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE

For many people the only answer to this question is that it is simply impossible to understand just where God fits into the overall picture. However, if God exists then there must be an answer to this problem. And the answer is this. This is not God's world. This is not God's society. God's desire for humanity is not what we see in this world. What rules our present society is man's sinfulness and his utter rebellion to God and to his laws. What rules is man's desire to follow the ways of satan and to do the things that are against the laws of God.

Listen to what God says!
Behold the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have separated you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, so that he will not hear you (Isaiah 59:1-2). God has not left us. His ear is not closed to us. He has not turned from us - we have turned from him.

Understanding this basic premise will help us see just why bad things happen to us. So lets look at the 3 main ways that bad things happen to man.

1--The first way is that we many times bring bad things on to ourselves. Jeremiah 8:10, "Because from the least even to the greatest, everyone is greedy for gain; From the prophet even to the priest. Everyone practices deceit".
God has given us the gift of free will. We have the ability to lead a Godly life which in turn leads to truth, salvation, and happiness in our lives, or we can choose the option of following earthly and sinful ways, which usually ends up causing us all kinds of pain and sorrow. If you drink alcohol every day from the time you get home till it is time to go to bed, then don't you think that you have yourself to blame for the liver disease that eventually befalls you? If you are injecting drugs into your body, is it not your own fault when you happen to come down with AIDS. If you like to speed down the road in your car, whose fault is it when you are involved in an accident and have to spend the rest of your life paralyzed. If you rob a liquor store and are caught, whose fault is it that you have to spend the next 10 years in prison.

When you seek filth, perversion, and ungodly acts, then what you will soon get are the consequences of those sinful acts, and we generally won't like those consequences. It is our constant never ending sinning that is ruling this world and has separated us from God. It is our pride and our desire to live in evil that has caused us to turn our back on God. It is our desire to have nothing to do with our loving Father that is responsible for our complete lack of awareness of him or respect for him. It is our spiritual wickedness and our unhindered acceptance of the rulers of the darkness of this world that is causing these terrible times. This is described in John 3:19 very descriptively when he says, "And this is the judgement, that the light has come into the world, but men have loved the darkness rather than the light, for men's works are wicked".

Another good example of this is found at James 1:14-15 "Each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. When lust has been conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death"

So it is easy to see how evil men with evil intentions can easily cause evil things to happen to a great many good people. How true are the words found in the Bible at Ecclesiastes 8:9, "Man has dominated man to his injury."

God has not abandon us. Instead many of us have abandon God. We have chosen to follow satan rather than God. Where has God gone? He hasn't gone anywhere. He knows your heartaches. He knows your concerns. He loves you beyond anything you could imagine. He sees all the pain and hurt, but he also realizes that most of us want absolutely nothing to do with him.

If a man has wasted years in riotous living, those years are lost and he can never hope to live them over again. If he has violated his conscience, the scars will remain throughout his life. If he has soiled his reputation, the effects of it can never be washed away. If he shatters his body through indulgence and vice, then he must suffer until death. The grace of God gives a new heart, not a new body.

It should also be noted that sin unfortunately has a strange effect on human beings. It causes sinners to minimize the effects or the guilt of their wrong doing. Sin causes human beings to either justify or deflect the responsibility of their wrong doing. Ask yourself how many in prison falsely maintain their innocence. Did not Adam and Eve justify or deflect responsibility for their sin in the Garden of Eden?

2--The second way that bad things enter our lives is due to satan. Satan is in control of this world and it is he that causes so much pain and suffering; and it is satan who brings evil men with evil ideas into power. Like God, satan finds men to work through, and it is satan who is usually the real power behind both the political and spiritual powers of this present day world. Satan is the one who has ability to bring men like Hitler and Stalin to power. Men like these are easy prey for satan to bring out the ruthlessness and greed that lie within their hearts and which eventually results in a great deal of harm being done to many innocent people.

But why does satan do this? It is because satan hates mankind, and he hates mankind with a vengeance. He knows that only man has the opportunity to become members of God's family, and as children of God will eventually rule and reign over this entire universe. All satan ever wanted was to be worshipped and to be in a position where he could rule. But satan knows that his very existence will someday come to a very horrible and terrifying end. He knows that there is absolutely no chance that he is going to go through eternity ruling and being worshipped. And with this thought always in his mind, he long ago decided to take with him as many of us as he can.

Using the pages of the Bible let's look at just 10 verses and see how satan and man have interacted through out the history of man.

1) Long before man was ever created, satan was thrown out of heaven and he has been roaming the planet earth ever since.
Revelation 12:9 "And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him".

2) In the very earliest pages of the Bible we see how satan is able to get man to sin.
Genesis 3:13 "Then the Lord God said to the woman, What is this you have done? And the woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

3) Before Job was tested, satan shows up in heaven and God asked satan where he's been, and satan answered God this way.
Job 1:7 "And the Lord said to Satan, From where do you come? Then Satan answered the Lord and said, From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it."

4) The devil is extremely proficient in his ability to get people off the narrow Godly path. He has a tremendous ability to fool, mislead, and lead astray. His ability to lure, to deceive, to get a person to start thinking in a sinful way is awesome indeed. His appealing and attractive little detours, his small subtle suggestions, are all designed to lead us to eventual destruction. And those who follow satan have as their responsibility the task of leading others astray. Believers really have to be on guard at all times because satan is just waiting for you to take that armor of God off.
2Corinthians 11:14-15 "And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light". So it is not strange if his ministers also disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness.

5) Satan even tried to bribe Jesus by offering him the entire world if only Jesus would bow down to satan and offer him worship.
Luke 4:6 And the devil said to Him, "I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish".

6) The apostle John gives an accurate description of satan in the book of John.
John 8:44 "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies".

7) Paul tells a false prophet that he is acting just the way that the devil acts and then proceeds to describe this type of action.
Acts 13:10 "You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord"?

8) The apostle John tells us just how extensive satan's power is.
1 John 5:19 "The whole world lies under the power of the evil one".

9) Once again Paul describes the tremendous power of satan.
2 Corinthians 4:4 "In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God".

10) Jesus, just before his death, told Peter the true purpose of satan.
Luke 22:31 "Simon, Simon! Listen! Satan has received permission to test all of you, to separate the good from the bad, as a farmer separates the wheat from the chaff".

Worshiping satan
The thing that satan wants more than anything else is to be worshiped.
His quest is to get every human being to bow down to him and be obedient to him. Every time you sin you are worshiping satan because through sin you are telling both satan and God that you prefer satan's sinful ways rather than God's ways. By your sinful actions you are rejecting God's laws and you are actually placing another god before the Heavenly Father. And therefore each time that you sin you are breaking the second commandment of God which says, "You shall have no other gods before me."

This is why satan tried so hard to get Jesus to bow down and worship him in Matthew 4:8-9, "Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me."

But please remember that the devil can control a human being only by being able to manipulate the mind and the will, and to do this a person first has to allow satan entrance and some control over his mind and will.

That is why most of the modern counterfeits of Satan demand a yielding of the mind.
And that is why it is such an evil thing for any human being to surrender his mind to the controlling influence of some other person or power. If ever there was a time when men and women needed all of their mental capacity and strength of will, it is now. There is plenty of evidence at hand that the more a person's mental processes are breached and controlled by someone else, the weaker that person's will becomes, and the less power of decision that person can exercise.

From the very earliest days of the Bible, God warns against the dangers and evils of allowing your mind to become controlled. God views this type of behavior as worshiping false gods. Those that practice this are at a great risk of receiving the wrath of God.
Deuteronomy 18:10-12 "There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord".
That was true back in the Old Testament days, and it is true today.

3--The third way that bad things happen to us is from God himself. God normally exercises his control through natural processes, but he still intervenes a great many times in each of our lives. He intervenes with obvious miracles whenever he chooses. He sent the 10 plagues on Egypt, dried up the Red Sea, and fed 2.5 million Israelites with manna for 40 years. He also sends into each of our lives certain trials and tribulations that God allows to come into our lives in order to grow us up, to build up our Godly character, and to make us better Christians.

There are all kinds of misfortune that lie ready to pounce upon us. This world is full of unhappy and unfortunate situations just waiting to befall us. However God will only allow so much adversity to come into our lives because God knows just how much each and every one of us can handle.
1 Corinthians 10:13 tells us, "No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it".
We grow in Christ when things are going bad, not when things are going perfect. What grows us up is what puts us down on our knees, and God is going to use every single adversity coming into our lives to help us mature spiritually.

Faith in God does not mean trusting God to stop the bad storms in our life. Faith and trust in God are things which enable us to walk through those periods of hurt and sorrow and come out victorious. We must trust God and believe that when trouble occurs, as long as we keep our eyes on him, as long as we keep our focus on God, then he is going to give us the ability to cope with any storms coming into our lives. We are wrong if we expect belief and faith to keep us from suffering. If anyone should doubt this then just look at what the world did to Jesus. Instead, the storms of life should become workshops where we can practice our faith in God's greatness. The storms that God allows into our lives are not there to destroy us. They are there to develop us.
James 1:2-4 "My brothers and sisters, when you have trials, you should be full of joy, because you know that these troubles test your faith, and this will give you patience. Let your patience show itself perfectly in what you do. Then you will be perfect and complete and will have everything you need".

God knows that the only way we can change is by forcing us to see our own imperfections reflected in the way we respond to his lawful demands. And his demands are in direct opposition to the demands of this world. God constantly tests our love for him through the conflicts he allows into our lives. As a result, his tests reveal whether our love for him is pure or is contaminated with selfishness. If we keep our focus on Jesus Christ we can mature spirituality as we learn from these tests of faith.

For the believer, every trial and tribulation, every problem, every difficulty, whether from yourself, satan, or God, can be used to allow you to grow in Christ and to advance you on your Christian walk. That was true for Jesus and it is true for you, as verses like the following teach us. Hebrews 5:8 "Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered."

Ask yourself this question and be honest in your answer. What allows you to grow in your spiritual maturity? What allows you to get closer to God? Do you grow when you are at ease, have comfort, are happy, and when everything is going just fantastic? Are those the times when you grow and become closer to God? Or do you grow when you are heartbroken, are in despair, have disappointment, and have no idea which way to turn? When the trials and tribulations of this world are getting ready to bury you, isn't that the time you look to God? Aren't the times when your back is against the wall, the times when you become very, very close to God? Aren't the disastrous and difficult times the times when you finally put your complete faith and trust in the only one who can possibly help?

It is those times when we have no other place to turn to but God that we mature spiritually. Those are the times when we reach down and put ever greater faith and trust in Jesus Christ. We become closer to God and grow stronger spiritually when we are in difficulty. We grow closer to Christ when we are willing to wait patiently for God to act and to speak to our heart, soul, and mind.

God may very well be working on an area in your life which he wants to improve and the way for him to do that is to allow some difficult times into your life. Any trial or tribulation that we face, provides us an excellent opportunity to declare our dependence on God, and not on ourselves. It also determines the degree of faith that we place in the Lord, along with the amount of trust and confidence that we have in him. It also tests our obedience to the Father. When a difficult time arises in your life; when you find a crisis has entered your life, running to God - not from him - results in victory.

In his letter to the church in Corinth, Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 12:10, "I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong".
Paul had discovered that strength was found in weaknesses. Instead of trying to lug his cross up a hill, Paul decided it was best to turn it over to the Lord. So when Paul's strength was insufficient, he turned to God. As a result, Paul humbly walked through life's ups and downs with a perspective that kept his eyes always focused on Jesus. He had surrendered to The Lord.

One of the very best verses to remember when any trial or tribulation should suddenly materialize in front of you is Isaiah 41:10. "Do not be afraid For I am with you. Do not look around, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will keep hold of you with my right hand of righteousness".

This one single verse tells the believer exactly how he or she should look at every single problem that should present itself in that persons life, regardless of the degree and regardless of the source.

Regardless of how the difficult time enters your life, God knows when you are hurting and he cares for you and does not take joy in your suffering. God will draw very near and listen for your heartfelt cry. When you feel overwhelmed, ask God to enable you to mentally step away from the situation and see things from his perspective. His view is one of hope and light. When you pray, when you put your trust in him, when you ask him for encouragement, that is when he will bring you victory.

God has a purpose and a plan for every single adversity that he allows to come into our life, because it is in our pain and suffering that God is molding us, building up our character, and growing us up in Christ. The hard times is what equips us so that we can lead the kind of life that God wants us to live.

Also, those periods of darkness that we have when we are living through trials and tribulations should be used as a learning tool not only for ourselves, but also for others that we come in contact with. The difficult times in our lives can be used to help others make it through their difficult times. What God did for you in those horrible times can be of tremendous help to others who are going through their own trials and tribulations.
Matthew 10:27 "What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light."

How we really feel about God
How we react to each adversity will show us how we really feel about God. Do we lose all trust in him when a trial or a tribulation pops up, or do we immediately turn to God in prayer and ask for his help and guidance? Do we immediately ask him to show us the solution and how to proceed or do we ignore God until we have tried everything possible that we can think of? Ask yourself, is God your first choice; your first line of defense when trouble comes into your life? So how we respond and react to difficulties shows us, and shows God, just where we place him in importance in those times when our backs are up against the wall. And God himself tells us over and over all through the Bible that he is there, and he is just waiting for the opportunity to help you.
Psalms 86:7 "In the day of my trouble I call on you Lord, because you will answer me."
Psalms 46:1 "God is our protection and our strength. He always helps in times of distress".
Psalms 57:1 "Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me. For in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, until the trouble has passed".

So most of the adversities that come into our lives are caused by ourselves and satan, through our sinful and rebellious nature. We seek out the ways of satan, and satan is always ready and willing to help us step off that narrow road leading to the truth and the light. At the same time God also allows some adversity into our lives to grow us up and make us better Christians. God allows them into our lives to help us mature spiritually. Remember to that we need those dark times in order to appreciate the good times.

Regardless of how the trials and tribulations come into your life, and how difficult they appear, the most important thing to always keep in mind is not to abandon your faith in Christ. A good example of this is what happened to Jairus when he came to Jesus and told him that his daughter was dying and would Jesus please come to his house and heal her. Mark 5:23 "My little daughter lies at the point of death. Come and lay Your hands on her, that she may be healed, and she will live."

Before the Lord does anything for him, some of Jairus servants come up to him and tell him some very bad news. Mark 5:35 "While He was still speaking, some came from the ruler of the synagogue's house who said, "Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further"?

Then Jesus tells Jairus and the entire world something really incredible. He tells us never to abandon our faith when we find ourselves backed into a corner, when we don't have any idea how to proceed, when we are out of options, when it all looks so horribly hopeless.
Mark 5:36 "But Jesus, overhearing what was being spoken, said to the synagogue official, "Do not be afraid, only believe."

And so Jairus did not allow his faith to weaken and he and Jesus went to his house where the impossible and the unthinkable took place. Jesus took the dead hand of the man's daughter and simply said, Arise! Mark 5:42 "Immediately the girl arose and walked, for she was twelve years of age. And they were all overcome with great amazement".

How to get through the hard times
The following are 4 steps that will definitely help you get through every single adversity and difficult time.

1---View everything as coming from God no matter what it is. Nothing happens without God's permission and even though you may have brought it on yourself, God can use that difficulty to show you how you can become a better Christian. So in difficult times don't get angry and become bitter at the Lord. Instead continue to serve him and remain faithful. Rely fully and completely on God The Father and his Son Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 5:6 "Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time".

2---When each and every adversity comes into your life ask God to show you his goal and reason for placing this difficulty in your life. Tell him that you do not understand and you need his help to show you what it all means. Psalms 37: 5-9 "Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, And your justice as the noonday sun. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; Do not fret for it only causes harm. For evildoers shall be cut off; But those who wait on the Lord, They shall inherit the earth".

3---Surrender to the unknown will of God. We usually don't know what he is up to, but by our complete surrender we are telling him that we agree with him and that we are putting our complete trust and faith in him. Many things coming into our lives just do not make any sense, but those are the times when we really need to trust the Lord. Because what doesn't make any sense to us, makes perfect sense to God. So be patient and trust him. Isaiah 55:8-9 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts greater than your thoughts".

4---Trust him. In the deepest regions of your heart and soul you know that you can completely trust God to see you through this difficult time, and once through it, you will be a stronger and greater Christian. Proverbs 3: 5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths".

We are all tested a great many times each and every day of our lives. There are a great many trials and tribulations that constantly seem to seep into our lives. You don't have to wait very long for that problem, that obstacle, that frustrating occurrence, that dreaded little experience to blindside you. Those bad and difficult times just always seem to be there. Your daily life is full of them. So the very next time one of them suddenly materializes, immediately tell the Lord that you need his help. Instead of responding like the world expects you to respond like getting angry, immediately concentrate on the Lord and ask the Lord to help you. It may take some practice but one of the best ways to build your faith and learn to rely completely and fully on Jesus is by slowly but surely allowing Jesus to carry the burden of every single one of your problems.

So regardless of the tribulation, a believer can still have great inner peace while the adversity is raging on, if, he maintains his Godly relationship with Jesus Christ. For inner peace is what results when a believer keeps his focus upon Jesus Christ. And this peace will flood the mind, the will, the emotions.

The Bible is just jammed with examples of how people were victorious over their adversities, and I would like to mention two of them to help show the importance of always keeping your focus on Jesus Christ.

1) Do you remember that picture of Daniel after he was thrown into the lions den? Here he was surrounded by some very menacing looking lions who appeared to be about ready to pounce upon him and tear him to pieces. But what was Daniel doing? He was on his knees looking up to heaven.

2) While the prophet Habakkuk was going through some very rough times, he gave each one of us some absolutely tremendous advice on how to maintain our strength and courage, our hope and joy, our confidence, contentment, and peace - regardless of the difficulty that has entered our lives.
Habakkuk 3:17-19 "Though the fig tree does not blossom, and there be no grapes on the vines; though the produce of the olive fails, and the fields produce no food; There may be no sheep in the pens and no cattle in the barns; Yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength; He makes my feet like the feet of a deer that does not stumble, and allows me walk upon the heights."

There are a great many verses in the Bible that will help you keep your eyes focused on the Lord, and at the same time will also help you get through each trial and tribulation successfully. Listed below are just a few of them.

1 Corinthians 10:13 "But remember that the temptations that come into your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can't stand up against it. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you will not give in to it."

Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

2 Timothy 2:10 "So I patiently accept all these troubles."

Colossians 1:11 "God will strengthen you with his own great power so that you will not give up when troubles come, but you will be patient."

2 Timothy 3:10-11 "But you have closely followed my teaching, the course of my life, my purpose, my faith, my long suffering, my love, my endurance, my persecutions, my sufferings, the sort of things that happened to me in Antioch, in Iconium, in Lystra, the sort of persecutions I have borne, and yet out of them all the Lord delivered me.

And finally one last thing to remember about satan.
Even though satan is able to entice and tempt people inorder to influence events in this world, he still does not have the power to force you to do anything. He cannot harm or hurt you in any way. The only power that satan has over you, is the power that you give him. So he cannot read your mind or see into your heart. The Bible tells us that only God can do that. And as a believer you are in communion with God. What this means is that you are in a personal and intimate fellowship with the very one who created satan. And please remember that nothing happens in this world without God's approval, and God watches over and protects his children.

Satan is in charge of what ever God allows him to be in charge of, but what satan really watches for are your actions, your words, your desires, your weaknesses. What satan is watching for is that sneer, that subtle sign of contempt, those small little facial expressions that you have right before you get angry. He thrives on your discouragement and depression. He has incredible success when he comes across those times when you are in doubt and feel hopeless. This is why satan and his many followers spend much time and energy trying to overwhelm God loving Christians with anxieties, discouragement, discontent, conflict, immorality, idolatry and the ever consuming distractions of success. So make no mistake, satan knows your weaknesses better than you do, and he is very good at tempting your flesh.

Also if satan can guide and direct you in such a way so that you have feelings of rejection and insecurity, if he can get you feeling unloved and unwanted, if he can cause you to feel isolated and lonely, if he can get you fearing the future so that you become filled with hopelessness and despair, then satan is well on his way of tearing you away from God.

It is satan using temptation that stirs our blood and inflames our imagination. If we were revolted by temptation, then none of us would ever be tempted by it. Occasionally we see where temptation will take us and we cry out for deliverance. Usually though, temptation doesn't seem very bad, so we play with it, flirt with it, and invite it into our lives. When we pray about our sins, it's not temptation that bothers us, it's the consequence of our disobedience that we want forgiveness for.

We are surrounded by seductions and temptations from satan and from the world, and all of them are designed to persuade and convince us to live apart from God. It is all those tempting lures from satan and his many followers, along with our own ambitions, desires, and successes, that causes us to be tempted to honor our own names, to build our own kingdoms, to take credit for our own accomplishments, and to deny our need for forgiving grace.

We can only wonder how much time and energy satan spends in creating snares and traps for us. Think of the effort that he and his followers must go through to think up all those alluring suggestions. The devil reminds me of a mouse trap. What the mouse sees is that big delicious mouth watering piece of cheese. That tempting little morsel that the mouse just has to have. But the mouse gives little if any thought to that tightly coiled spring, or that strong iron bar that just seems to be laying there. No thought to all that mechanism that seems to be all around that wonderful piece of cheese. No thought at all of the possible consequences of getting that cheese. And in many respects we are just like that mouse. Because once we take our eyes off of God and place them on something that is ungodly, once our focus is averted away from Jesus Christ, then our guard comes down. And once our guard is down then the temptations and urges become so much stronger. And with our guard down it will not be long before our desire gets the best of us and we decide that we must have "our little piece of cheese".

If temptation brought chains to bind us, then we would resist temptation on our own. Instead, temptation brings flowers and perfume, offers life and cheer, and promises good times and satisfaction. Temptation bribes us with wealth and popularity and entices us with promises of prosperity and unbounded freedom. And only God can keep us from the charms of satan's temptation.

But we were all given the gift of "free will." God would never force anyone to do something against their own free will. And God would certainly never let satan force anyone to do something against their free will. Satan is allowed to tempt, entice, and induce man but only to those limits that man can still maintain control with his free will. Satan cannot go any further than that. Man's free will is what determines whether each one of us will follow the ways of our Savior or the ways of satan. It is us and our free will that determines which road we follow. If it were any other way, then you could say that the deck was stacked in favor of either God or satan. No, what happens to our eternal soul is up to us. Where we are at the end of the line, is in our own hands.

Can you imagine what would happen to all of us if satan could force his will on us? Overnight he would have us running around killing our families and neighbors. He would have us all committing everything from adultery to robbery. In no time at all he would have us all on drugs blaspheming God night and day. In a matter of hours he would get us to stamp out completely any kind of righteousness and Godliness. Before the first day was up, the very name of God would be completely wiped out of existence.

No, what happens to our eternal soul is up to us. Satan can attempt to influence us, and he does just that using all kinds of incentives. And of course he has a great deal of success at it. And the Bible tells us just how easy it is for satan to be so successful. James 1:14 "But each one is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desires."

So should you be afraid of satan? You should be deathly afraid of Satan -- if you are living your own life and doing your own thing apart from God. But if you are willing to let Christ control your life, you have nothing to fear because the Bible says in John 4:4, "Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world."

So if one resists the devil and his helpers by having a mind given over to pure Godly thinking, then victory begins immediately. The Holy Spirit and a demon cannot operate within the same body. There is not room for both.

This is not to say that God does not allow satan to bring trials and tribulations into our lives because he does. God himself sends difficulties into our lives. But every single trial or hardship that God allows to come into our life has some purpose. God is going to use that tribulation to grow us up, to build up our character, to make us stronger believers and better Christians. The trials in our lives are equivalent to the weights that a weight lifter uses to build up his muscles. How else can we possibly grow and become stronger in our spiritual walk? The thing to remember is that at no time will God ever let a difficult time be so extreme that we cannot handle it. That's a promise that God makes to us. All through the Bible he tells us that. Luke 10:19 is a good example.
"See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will hurt you."

Still, many people who are going through trials and tribulations look to heaven and cry out, Where was God when this happened, or why did God allow this to take place? But God was in the exact same place he was when cruel men took His only Son and murdered him on a cross." There is no place on the face of this earth where we can get away from the realities of suffering and death and much of it comes about when we listen to the voice of satan rather than the voice of God.

Even though we are reminded daily that we have not been promised immunity from suffering and death, believers still know that God has promised that we can exist, and still be overflowing with hope, joy, and peace. How? By our faith. By believing and trusting what God says. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then am I strong. (2 Corinthians 12:10)

To find out why there are such things as sickness, disease, wars, murder, and other horrible things in our lives, please click on the link below.

Why the creation of man is described twice in the book of Genesis, and why this is the key to the horrible and terrible things happening in your life and in the world.


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the holy trinity: what is the holy trinity
god's love: the nature of god's great love
the rapture: the real truth behind the rapture
why did Jesus have to die: why the cross
god the father: getting to know god the father
The miracles: The meanings of the 7 miracles in the book of John
jesus: who is this man called jesus christ
the holy spirit: proving the existence of the holy spirit
losing salvation: once saved can you become unsaved
baptism: is baptism really necessary
death: what happens to us at death
eternal rewards: rewards that are waiting for you
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good works: what are good works
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listening to god: how to listen and talk to god
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timeline: a tour through the end times
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beatitudes: their significance and meaning
apostasy: living in an age of unbelief
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are you saved by faith only : are there other things involved
stories: beautiful stories
a teacher's dilemma : for teachers only
The importance of baptism: Six very important factors regarding baptism
Does God know who is going to hell: Why does God allow the unsaved to be born
Creation: Why is the creation story told twice
World Trade Towers: Where was God?
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