These are questions many people don't like to deal with. But we must realize that God never promised us that we wouldn't face tests, trials, and adversity. We will all face problems in life, so we need to learn how to deal with them.
We can't hide our heads in the sand or ask "Why?" We must maintain our faith and trust in God and His Word. Then we must do exactly what the Word says: "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding" (Prov. 3:5). If we lean to our own understanding, we lose sight of the fact that God is still God.
You have to make a choice. Is God, God all the time? Or is He just God when everything is going well and there's no adversity in your life? No! God is God at all times, in all places, under all circumstances - good or bad!
Adversities are setbacks, but they don't have to be victories for the enemy. For example, in Mark 6:5 Jesus went to His hometown, "And he could there do no mighty work…." When Jesus experienced adversity, did He quit? No. He went around to the villages preaching and teaching and healing all (v. 6).
So what do we do? We do what Jesus did; we pick up the pieces and keep right on going with God, no matter what happens!
We live in this world, and the Bible says that the devil is the god of this world, who goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour (2 Cor. 4:4; 1 Peter 5:8). And occasionally something happens, and we face a tragedy. Do we pull back from a strong stand on the Word when we face adversity? No, we stand stronger, rise to our full height, check our armor, and go out more determined than ever to defeat the enemy!
In the natural, I have always been the kind of person who avenged a loss or defeat. For example, when I was in high school and lost a track race, the first thing I did was find out when my team was going to compete against that team again. I knew that runner would be in the same race again.
I set my sights and began to train harder. When the day of the race came, I lined up on the starting line and looked over at the runner who had beaten me before. Then I said to myself, He will never beat me again. And he didn't!
Bouncing back from tragedy or defeat is our decision. We must look forward with the attitude: "I may have lost a battle, but I will win the war!"
And we must go on with God. If we don't move on with God, we allow the devil to win the war. Our victory rests with us realizing that God is still God and His Word is still true - and always will be!
Excerpt permission granted by Faith Library Publications