“Good situations don’t mean we’re doing God’s will and vice versa.” –Hardy Wu

Just because we’re in a situation that seems good and that seems ok doesn’t mean it is ok. The Scripture is full of examples where people thought they were ok, despite their unholy living.

Both Kings David and Solomon were tested with this. Both had more than one wife and God had stated with the ancient Israelites (Deuteronomy 17:17) that they should only have one partner. Both men lived out their lives and were blessed with many children, but there were consequences to them having many wives. For example, David’s first son Adonijah was jealous of his brother Solomon, because Solomon was promised to be the next king and he [Solomon] wasn’t even the oldest. Both had different mothers and David loved Bathsheba (Solomon’s mother), and that was shown to David’s other children who saw how their father really delighted in a woman that was not their mother. Having many spouses can cause jealousy between the other spouses and their children. It just causes problems and that's why God tells us to only have one. My goodness, one is a lot to handle anyways. Just because these accounts are in the Bible doesn’t mean God was or is ok with polygamy.

Every situation that we’re presented in life is a test and we wonder where God is during the trial or temptation. But, we must remember that the teacher is always silent during a test. We’re hit with tests all the time and we often don’t realize we're in a test. During life’s tests, we must draw close to God, trust Him, and strive to live the way He has instructed us in Scripture.

Flip Side

On the flip side, bad situations don’t mean we’re not doing God’s will. Looking at the Prophet Elijah, he was successful in killing 450 prophets of Baal, but Ahab and his wicked wife Jezebel, tried to kill him for killing their pagan prophets. Elijah thought he was in a bad situation, ran away, and asked God to let him die. It was in seclusion that God ministered to Elijah, to prepare him to meet and train Elisha, who would replace him as Israel’s next prophet.

Looking at Job’s trials, he had 2 choices during his many tests: to curse God or to trust God, but Job chose to live in God’s will by obeying Him.

Looking at Noah, people ridiculed him for building a big boat, for they had never seen rain before. But, Noah chose to obey and trust God.

 Take Away

As a teacher is silent during a test, God is often silent in situations where we’re not living rightly, but it seems all is going good, so we think we can get by with our state of living. Often God is allowing us the time to wake up and correct our foolish choices, before we meet the dreadful consequences of bad decisions.

The takeaway from these examples is that we must be cognizant of unholy living, and just because a situation is good doesn’t mean God is pleased. We must turn our lives around to live how He has instructed us to live. And on the flipside, we must trust God when a bad situation comes, as it doesn’t always mean we are out of God’s will. It just means that we must obey God, trust Him in the test, and get through what we’re going through. 

Happy Friday!