“WHY?”

Selected Passages from

Esther 4, Romans 5 & 8

“… most of the witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ were "deluded, illiterate, hysterical women.” … “monotheistic religion is a plagiarism of a plagiarism of a hearsay of a hearsay, of an illusion of an illusion, extending all the way back to a fabrication of a few nonevents.” Christopher Hitchens – “God is Not Great”

“The real problem is not why some pious, humble, believing people suffer, but why some do not.” C.S. Lewis quotes

1. God sometimes uses difficult circumstances to bring His people to a place of humility and trust!

Esther 4:3 (NASB) In each and every province where the command and decree of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing; and many lay on sackcloth and ashes.

2. God sometimes uses difficult circumstances to build and mold us into His image!

Romans 5:2-4 (HCSB) Also through Him, we have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, 4 endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope.

3. God sometimes uses difficult circumstances to place us in a position for His glory!

Esther 4:13-14 (NLT) Mordecai sent this reply to Esther: “Don’t think for a moment that because you’re in the palace you will escape when all other Jews are killed. 14 If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?”

4. God sometimes uses difficult circumstances to bring us to a place of victory!

Romans 8:31-34 (HCSB) What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He did not even spare His own Son, but offered Him up for us all; how will He not also with Him grant us everything? 33 Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the One who justifies. 34 Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the One who died, but even more, has been raised; He also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us.

Romans 8:35-37 (NLT) Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? 36 (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) 37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.