{"id":4879,"date":"2019-02-24T09:00:59","date_gmt":"2019-02-24T15:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.barbdahlgren.com\/?p=4879"},"modified":"2019-02-25T21:21:33","modified_gmt":"2019-02-26T03:21:33","slug":"choose-to-comfort-not-condemn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=4879","title":{"rendered":"Choose to Comfort Not Condemn"},"content":{"rendered":"

Choices change our lives\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

By Barbara Dahlgren<\/em><\/p>\n

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When someone is going through a hardship, they need comfort and encouragement \u2013 not judgment and condemnation. If we aren\u2019t careful, we can make false assumptions about someone else\u2019s trials. Here are a few\u2026<\/p>\n

A trial is God\u2019s way of punishing people for their sins<\/strong>. Not true! God doesn\u2019t need to punish us for sin. Sin brings its own punishment. We don\u2019t know why someone is ill. When God healed the blind man in John 9, the disciples asked who had sinned to cause this blindness, him or his parents. Jesus said, \u201cNeither!\u201d (John 9:1-3)<\/p>\n

People always bring afflictions upon themselves. <\/strong>Not true! We don\u2019t know why someone is having a trial. After Jesus told the disciples that no one had sinned to cause the man\u2019s blindness in John 9, he went on to say why this man was blind: \u201c\u2026that the works of God should be revealed in him.\u201d We don\u2019t know what God is doing an another person\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

If people have enough faith, they won\u2019t be having trials. <\/strong>Not true! Did David lack faith? Did Paul lack faith? Did Job lack faith? Did Jesus lack faith? I don\u2019t think so!<\/p>\n

Bad things happen to good people all the time and we don\u2019t know why. And shame on those who go to suffering people and add to their misery by telling them if they had enough faith they wouldn\u2019t be going through some horrendous trial. If we learn anything from the Bible, it\u2019s that all God\u2019s children got problems \u2013 or will have problems.<\/p>\n

Some faithful Christians will get diseases and die no matter how many sincere prayers are said for healing. Some will be gunned down by random acts of violence no matter how pure their lives have been. Some husbands will leave beautiful wives no matter how faithful and loving those wives have been. Dedicated Christians will face loneliness, death, anxiety, suffering, temptation, fear, exhaustion, conflict, poverty, and uncertainty just like everyone else.<\/p>\n

People don\u2019t need judgment or condemnation when they are going through trials. They also don\u2019t need platitudes that might be helpful in the future, but certainly not during present suffering. Hurting people do not want to hear\u2026<\/p>\n