Why is life so hard?

The entrance of sin and evil into the world inevitably results in suffering. Suffering is an inescapable part of life. It might surprise you to know that all of your sufferings were ordained before the world began. God knows everything that you're going to go through. He knows every hurt that you'll ever feel. Every heartache that you will ever bear.

Every sorrow there is going to be a part of your life. And there are many. Life is tough. Life is hard. And we just explained the reason why life is hard. It all has to do with that. Spiritual war and conflict began with a fall of Satan and then the introduction of sin into the world. We suffer because of sin.

We suffer because of our own sins. We suffer because of the sins of others. It is impossible to escape the suffering that comes with sin, and it's impossible for us to escape in a sinful world. Sufferings that we may not deserve or think we don't deserve, that we didn't ask for, that are imposed on us. For some people, that suffering begins at birth.

There are people that are born into the world with physical, mental, emotional defects. Sometimes those sufferings are imposed on us because of the home that we live in, because of the upbringing that we have, because of hardships and difficulties and sometimes even abuses that we go through early on in our life. All of us are a product of suffering in our life.

It affects us. It changes us. It plays a part in making us who we are. But it can either make us weaker or it can make us stronger. And we have to choose which one it's going to be. So I want to hit a couple of things in the basics book if you just turn with me. I want to talk about suffering. Page 258, of The Basics Book if you will.

First Peter is a book of suffering. He's writing to people who have been scattered. They've lost their homes, they've been separated from their families. They had suffered physical abuse because of their faith. They were Jewish believers. They had gone through persecution and I have to tell you that persecution around the world is intensifying at a terrifying rate throughout Africa, across India, throughout Asia. In the five chapters that we have, he breaks down suffering into these categories. And I think they're progressive.

In 1st Peter 1:6-7, he talks about suffering trials and temptation, and he tells us that the trial of our faith being much more precious than gold, perishes, though it's tried with fire, may be found under praise and honor and glory at the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ, your greatest chance to win gold in the eternal value and system of things is dealing properly with your sufferings. How we deal with our trials, how we deal with our temptations. We all go through them, of course.

Peter talks in first Peter 2:19 about unjust or undeserved suffering. This is suffering that we didn't ask for. It's not because of anything that we've done. We are right in our conduct, right in our relationship with the Lord. And yet we're moving out of just various kinds of trials and temptation into an unjust suffering situation. It may be because of something someone else does. It may just be because of what God what life throws at us.

In 1st Peter 3:14-15 is suffering for the sake of righteousness. You did do something, but it was a righteous thing you did that you're suffering for. I think we've had some pretty good examples illustrate that recently in our country, or as we move into sharing Christ's sufferings.

1st Peter 4:12-13 talks of sharing in the sufferings of Christ to be conformed to His character. Jesus Christ suffered to bring us to God. He sacrificed himself so that we could have life. Sharing the sufferings of Jesus Christ means that we are continuing that work of reaching out to the world with the gospel, evangelizing people.

And then finally, personal satanic attack. 1st Peter 5:8. The devil walks about as a roaring lion. Now we know the devil is not omnipresent. He can only be at one place at one time. We read in the book of job his attack on job. Job was playing a significant enough part in the plan of God that Satan decided to pay him a personal visit.

Well, there may be times when Satan, or if not him in person, one of his emissaries picks you out as someone who's having enough of an impact on the kingdom of darkness that they need to stop you.

You know what suffering does? Suffering puts us in a place where we have to make a decision. We have to make a decision. We have to decide what we're going to do with the situation that we're in.

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