Why?

Good evening lovelies. So sorry for not posting in a while! I try to only post when I feel God has put something on my heart that He wants me to share with others and honestly until this week, I hadn't really heard anything from Him. Well if I'm being completely real with y'all I have struggled with devoting time to God everyday and making Him priority over school and friends and numerous other things. This week I've gotten more on track and would like to share some things I've learned through devotionals, prayer, church, etc.

Hurt. Worry. Loss. Confusion. Pain. Sorrow. All present emotions in my town and in my school and in my friends lately. For reasons only the good Lord knows, there have been many tragedies in the past 2 weeks that have left the people around me hurt and confused. Why is our world so broken? Why do these horrible things happen to such good people? What am I supposed to do to comfort those hurting? One of my biggest questions that I just haven't been able to comprehend lately is this....If God knew at the beginning of time how corrupt and chaotic and broken our world would become, why did He even bother creating it? I know God didn't create evil, but why did He create the world if He knew evil would enter it and tempt His children from the beginning?

While searching for an answer, here are the main points I gathered...

• God knew how corrupt our world would become. He knew how many people would completely reject Him and go their own ways. He knew how many people would claim to be Christians but wouldn't put forth the effort to really get to know Him and develop a relationship with Him. He knew how each of His children would slip away from Him and how we would each choose something that we put before Him at some point in our lives. He knew that there would be wars, death, pain, hatred, and worst of all...wait for it...high school breakups (sarcasm, that's definitely not the worst). Anyway point is, God didn't just create this world and expect it to be perfect, our All-Knowing God knew Adam and Eve would eat the apple and He knew I would push Him away in the past few stressful weeks. He knew every person, place, thing, event, situation, and even our thoughts before they came to be.

• God created each of His children with a purpose. He took every event, situation, and tragedy and planned for something good to come out of it. He has this big plan all laid out for this earth and for every person in it until the day of His returning. He did give us free will, but He still knows exactly what will happen and desperately wants to guide us to what is best.

•  Because Heaven is the only perfect place and Christ is the only perfect person, our world is obviously not going to be perfect, in fact, it is far from it. That means that yes there will be tragedy and disaster and hurt and pain and temptation and evil. All of that is present in this world and will affect each of us at some point. But the good news is...

1. God has already won the battle! He has conquered Satan and has conquered death.
2. The Holy Spirit lives inside of us and gives us the power to overcome all the struggles of this world.
3. Our citizenship is in Heaven! Our short life here is nothin' compared to the eternity we will spend in perfect peace, worshipping the Almighty God in His Kingdom.

So here's what I have taken away from all this knowledge and here's what I hope you will take away from it! The evil of this world is not going to go away, but our God is strong enough to overcome it, and because He lives inside us, we are too! We may not understand why such terrible things happen, but we must hold onto the truth that this world is not our home and a day will come when we are worry-free, joyful, and surrounded by loved ones all worshipping our beautiful savior for the rest of our days. Meanwhile, spend your short, unpromising life here on earth living for Your Creator and serving Him and His people with your whole heart, mind, and soul. When you slip away, accept His forgiveness but don't take it for granted and put forth the effort to fall even more in love with Christ.

And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die. Revelation 12:11

And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires. 2 Peter 1:4