[This reflection by David Makanjuola was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 01/Jun/2025]
Inspiration for most of my articles in Yours come from conversations with people. This one is no different. After the service a couple of weeks ago, someone came up to me and asked if he could ask a question. He said he wondered why God allowed so much trouble and sorrow in the world. He said that we didn’t ask to be born, and if we knew what the world would be like, we would probably have chosen not to come into it.
I said it was a difficult question and one that I did not have an answer for, but as we talked further, I said that we have probably underestimated what happened in the garden of Eden. What God created was good, and the man and woman he created were very good. Eating that apple led to more trouble than we realised. What was good, indeed very good, became corrupted and spoiled.
Having said that, we should take comfort from the apostle Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 2 verse 9:
Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.
In essence, in answer to the question I was asked, if we had any idea what God has in store for us after we die, we would definitely have asked to be born.
Another picture that came to me is worth sharing, I think. Imagine yourself in Heaven, walking with God, and He says, “come with me, I want to show you something”. He shows you someone that looks very familiar. This person is happy, mingling with other people in heaven. You realise that it is someone you had been praying would come to know Christ. You are so happy to see that it happened. God says, “come with me we’ve got more to see”. He shows you some people on earth that have had their situations turned around for the better. They have come through hardships, ill health, difficult times. God asks you what these people have in common. You wonder for a while, and then it hits you – these were people you had prayed for at different times. God says to you, “Yes, I heard all those prayers and none of them was wasted”.
Just a picture that came to my mind, but it did so after the sermon by Shaun from Youth For Christ last Sunday. He spoke of five words – ‘Do whatever He tells you’. When we do whatever Christ tells us to do, our actions are never in vain.
Have a blessed week.
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Last Sunday’s reflection: It’s Painful! by Dennis Ginter
Contributed by David Makanjuola; © David Makanjuola