4 Reasons Why You’ll Go thru Adversity (and why you’ll appreciate it later)

Do you ever ask the question why bad things happen to good people or maybe, Is God mad at me? Why am I going through adversity? If you've ever struggled with those questions, today's podcast is for you. Stay tuned.

How do I bring my faith to work? How do I tap into the power of God in my work life? Paul, why am I going through this adversity? Is God mad at me? I'm also yeoman and I've been helping leaders like you enter these questions at more for over 30 years. That's what this podcast is all about. Let's learn and grow together. Welcome to TGF today. God is first. Well, welcome

Today's podcast is entitled four reasons why you'll go through adversity. You know, we all go through adversity. The question is are determining why we go through that adversity and today I want to give you four reasons. I believe that we all go through adversity, but make sure you stay through the end because at the end I'm going to give you a resource that'll really help you, that has supporting scriptures in it that you'll be able to download. At no charge. So just stay with me till the end. You know, I went through a seven year adversity back in the early nineties. It was a devastating time. I'd lost over a half a million dollars. My wife left me, 80% of my business went out the door. And it was a very difficult time. I had a vice president take my second largest account and so many of you who follow my podcasts already know my story so I won't get into it.

But you know, it was during that time that I really discovered a lot about why I went through adversity and why others go through adversity. And so that's what I want to talk about today. You know, Satan has three great lies and, and I wonder if you know what those lies are because he speaks it to almost every person, whether you're a believer or a nonbeliever. These lies are 1)you are powerless over your circumstances, 2)you are a victim of an unjust God 3) who left you here to suffer. Those are the three lies that every believer will believe at one time or another. So, you know, we need to understand that Satan wants your past to be your future, but God always sees you for what you're becoming. You know? And that's where we see in the story of Gideon.

Gideon was spoken to by the angel of the Lord. He says, “Oh, mighty warrior!” Now, he wasn't a warrior at the time, but I can assure you that God was looking at him through different lenses. You know, he was hiding behind a fence trying to protect himself from the Midianites. And so he was impugning the nature of God too. When the angel started talking to him, he said, “Why do you care? You don't care about us. You're not helping us. What kind of God are you?”

And that's the way many of us are. But you know, God worked in his life and he did become a mighty warrior. You know, in the book of Mark we see a passage that says, “Jesus told them, you're all going to feel that your world is falling apart. And that it's my fault.”

You know, I think that we've all identified with that statement, but we need to better understand what the Bible says about adversity. And while we might go through adversity, let's look at these four reasons that I believe we all will go through adversity. The first one is a consequence of the call. Our biblical example of that is Joseph. Now Joseph learned later about his adversity, that his brothers meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. You know, I believe that Satan entered the heart of his brothers. And yet God's omnipotence even worked in that situation. So Joseph went through 13 years of adversity that included slavery and also being a slave in Potiphar's household. And it, the Bible tells us about Joseph that he did.

He was blessed by God and God prospered him. He used that word prosper. You know, it doesn't seem like he's being prospered, does it? But that's what the Bible says about him. And so, you know, when it came time to him to be elevated, God used his gifts and