Tag Archives: it rains on the Just and unjust

December 1, 2025 · 5:43 AM

Trust The Process

One of the lessons in life we have to learn is that everyone will go through difficult times. In Matthew 5:45 Jesus said that God causes it to rain on the just and the unjust. So hard times are not just part of life, they’re part of God’s plan for you. It matters how we respond in them, how we trust in them and how we grow in them. Honestly, it’s hard to see God’s hand when we are going through a difficult time, but I’ve learned that He’s always there in them guiding me and shaping me through them. When you get further away from them and look back, it’s easier to see His hand at work during those times. That’s why how we respond in them matters.

In Genesis 37, Joseph was a young boy who did things that made his brothers hate him. Being his father’s favorite didn’t help. When God gave him dreams about his brothers bowing down to him, it set off a chain of events that saw his brothers beat him up, sell him as a slave, he was falsely accused and sent to prison where he was forgotten. He trusted God through years of difficulties knowing that somehow God would use these circumstances to fulfill the dream. It’s hard to hard to look ahead when times are hard, so Joseph simply trusted God’s plan. In one day he was freed and placed second in command of Egypt. It may have seemed like it suddenly happened, but it was years in the making as God grew and shaped Joseph. When his brothers arrived and bowed down, he didn’t gloat. Instead he forgave.

In Genesis 50:20 Joseph told them, “Even though you intended to hurt me, God intended it for good. It was his plan all along, to ensure the survival of many people” (TPT). Joseph was able to see God had caused it to rain in his life, not because he had done anything wrong, but so that others could be saved as a result of his suffering. When you look back at the hardest times of your life, what do you see God doing? I can see Him repositioning me and reshaping me. If you’re feeling forgotten right now or going through the hardest time of your life, keep trusting God’s plan. You may not get the perspective right away to see what He’s doing, but if you trust Him and the process, He will make sure that all things work together for your good and the good of others.

Photo by Kristjan Kotar on Unsplash

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December 28, 2021 · 5:41 AM

We Need To Worship

In Job 1. we read one of the most devastating stories a person could ever go through. In one day, Job lost all his possessions, his servants, his shepherds, his livestock and his children. One bad report came right after the other. In under a minute, he had lost everything. His knees buckled and he fell under the weight of everything. Verse 20 says. “Job stood up and tore his robe in grief. Then he shaved his head and fell to the ground to worship” (NLT). I imagine him face down with his hands raised up in surrender. He didn’t understand why everything was happening, but he did understand that God would care for him. The final verse in the first chapter says he didn’t sin by blaming God.

Every one of us are going to experience hardship that we don’t understand. Every one of us are going to unexpectedly lose things and people that we love with no answer as to why. Jesus said in Matthew 5:45 that God causes the sun to shine on the just and the unjust just like He causes it to rain on both. We are not exempt from pain, disappointment or loss. Instead, we have an anchor to hold on to when all seems lost. We have hope that others do not have. We can still worship in the middle of a storm we don’t understand. We can still trust God’s plan when our plans are torn from us. We can still look ahead when we’re too weak to move.

Hebrews 12:12-13 says, “So be made strong even in your weakness by lifting up your tired hands in prayer and worship. And strengthen your weak knees, for as you keep walking forward on God’s paths all your stumbling ways will be healed!” (TPT) When we are at our lowest, we need to worship. When we are out of options, we need to worship. When all seems lost, we need to worship. When we are too tired and feel like giving up, we need to worship. Worship regains our perspective. Worship renews our strength. Worship gives us hope. Worship keeps us moving forward when we can’t see the path. We don’t have to understand what God is doing, or even why. Like Job, we have to trust that He sees the bigger picture and knows what He’s doing. When nothing makes sense and you can’t do anything else, worship. He inhabits the praises of His people. He will not abandon you in your greatest time of need.

Photo by Hanny Naibaho on Unsplash

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August 16, 2019 · 6:00 AM

Troubles, Pressure And Pottery

Have you ever watched a potter with their wheel? It’s truly magnificent. They take a lump of clay, and with wet hands they begin to shape it into whatever they’re making. Then, they stick their scalpel in the middle that begins to follow it out. After that, they begin shaping the outside by removing more clay with the scalpel. If they want to, they add lines and other designs the same way. Once it is what they are looking for, they place it in the fire so it can be usable. After it cooks, they paint it and glaze it to continue the process of bring beauty out of what was once a lump of clay. Every part of that process must seem to the clay that the potter doesn’t love it, or is even against it, but the potter knows what the clay needs to go through to bring out its full potential.

I’ve never met anyone who loves going through tough times. We all enjoy good times and pray our lives are filled with those. However, God allows us to go through troubles and extended periods of pressure to produce in us things that can’t be produced any other way. He is constantly looking out for our good and will use whatever means necessary to form and shape us into the people He created us to be. Like the potter, He’s not afraid to use His scalpel or to put us in the fire for extended periods of time. Even when it doesn’t feel like it, God is working in our lives to create something beautiful. Most of the time He’s doing that though, it can feel painful and like He’s picking on us. Hang in there. He’s working things out for your good and turning your life into a thing of beauty.

Here are some Bible verses on how trouble can be good.

1. When things are going well for you, be glad, and when trouble comes, just remember: God sends both happiness and trouble; you never know what is going to happen next.

Ecclesiastes 7:14 GNT

2. Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.

James 1:2-4 MSG

3. Blessed [gratefully praised and adored] be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts and encourages us in every trouble so that we will be able to comfort and encourage those who are in any kind of trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

2 CORINTHIANS 1:3-4 AMP

4. We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

Romans 5:3-5 NLT

5. Yet, as God’s servants, we prove ourselves authentic in every way. For example: We have great endurance in hardships and in persecutions. We don’t lose courage in a time of stress and calamity.

2 Corinthians 6:4 TPT

Photo by SwapnIl Dwivedi on Unsplash

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