One of the hardest things to contemplate as a Christian is why God allows hardships into your life.
This is one mental train that is harder for Christians than non-Christians. Non-Christians do not have the belief that God is good, and he is all powerful. They can dismiss hardship and tragedy as simply the reality of life that we must accept. However, for Christians, we DO believe God is good and powerful. Therefore, we must reconcile the two when God doesn't use his power to remove or prevent a hardship or tragedy from our life. He has the power to do that and yet he chooses not to. He is good, yet he allows pain to remain.
Christians ask, "why?!"
We ask that question like a child asking his parents why they have a certain rule or path that we don't understand. What is their most common answer? "Trust me. You will understand when you are older."
God doesn't always answer our questions or explain why he allows many things in our life. However, he does tell us to trust him and that one day we will sing his praises forever because he is good, and his mercy endures forever. What helps us do that are the countless examples we have from the Bible of how God has used hardship and trials to bless, save and grow his chosen. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Moses, David and Elijah, Rahab, Ruth, Esther and Mary, these and so many more are examples of God's goodness, and his power used beyond the scope of human imagination in the moment. However, in time and in retrospect, God's plan is masterful and beautiful.
The greatest place to find reconciliation of your pain and God's immutable qualities, specifically his goodness and his power, is at the cross of Christ. There Jesus chose not to use his Almighty power to stop a farce of a trial, the mocking and beating by the soldiers, the ridicule from his own people, and the excruciating death by his own creation. Yet all of this, we know by His own Word, had to happen in order to rescue us from our sins. God used a wicked situation and the evil intent of so many in order to accomplish the greatest good for all humanity.
This teaches us that nothing can nor will stop God from bringing his will to come in our life. Hardships, enemies and tragedy can and will become part of His plan despite their sources. His power, goodness and WISDOM cannot be stopped.
So next time you are convinced that you are being buried, consider that perhaps this is one of those times God is planting you to grow for the blessings he has in store for you.
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths." Proverbs 3:5-6
"Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Romans 5:3-5
"And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you." 1 Peter 5:10
"We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life." Romans 6:4