John 10:10

John 10:10 - “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

With so much going on in our lives, all the busyness, we sometimes question whether a situation is from God or the enemy. I’ve heard people say, “I’m going through a hard time. God is testing me.” Some people think that God brings trouble into our lives to help us grow and to strengthen us. I've even heard it said that God decided to take someone “home early’ when they die at a young age. They've said, “Well, God knows best and He decided to take them home.” This kind of talk really gets under my skin, but let’s not talk about my thoughts, let’s look at what the Word says on this matter.

“The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy,” Then on the flip side, “I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.” Sounds pretty clear to me. On one side you have death and destruction, on the other side you have life. So let’s look again at the situations I mentioned in the first paragraph.

First we’ll look at the situation I mentioned of someone dying at a young age, or any age for that matter. Is that Life or Death? Obviously it is death! So that means it comes from the enemy. Death was brought into this world, not by God, but by the deception of the enemy, which brought sin. Now that is a pretty drastic event but let’s look at another one.

What if you get fired from your job? Well, you need a job to bring an income. At our jobs we are to work as if working for the Lord, so if we leave it should be on good terms. Does this situation bring life to the fullest? No it does not. Now we know that God works all things for the good of those who Love Him (Romans 8:28). So we know that better things will come out of it, but the act itself is not good. Therefore, this also is from the enemy.

Every situation that comes up in our life we need to view in the light of the scriptures. Thank God for the good things and trust Him to bring good out of the bad.