Life is hard. There's no way around it; hindsight is 20/20 but purely in vain - every situation has an 'if', 'but', 'could have' or 'should have'. Jesus Himself said that we will only find tribulation in this world (John 16:33). God has given us humans the gift of free will but after reading Romans 3 we see we are highly capable of violence, greed and general lawlessness.
So what should we do? Give up and give in to temptation? Seems easy enough? Far from it!!
Isaiah 55:8-9 -“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts." When God said this He was speaking from His bird's eye view. His view is not only from outside of this world but also from space, time and matter! Given this view point, all He asks us to do is trust in Him because His ways are clearly NOT our ways and are in fact, much higher.
1 Corinthians 1:25 says "Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." How many times do we think things are impossible? How many times do we rely on 'probability' over God's infinite power? I'll be the first one to confess! The number of testimonies about immigration issues, financial miracles and different pieces of a puzzle that I could only see once the miracle had taken place are things I just cannot seem to count. God truly does work in miraculous and extremely mysterious ways; mysterious not to Him but to us. My entire testimony of how God put the right people in my life at the right time and putting my in places I never thought I'd be all made sense only years later after I actually could see the entire overview of my journey with God - this overview is merely a glimpse of His, so I wonder, how can we put our trust in anything but God? This puts a whole other meaning to John 16:33 when Jesus said we will face tribulation "but take heart, I have overcome the world." Hallelujah indeed!
The story of Joseph always inspires me to trust in God no matter how tough the situation is; Joseph who was thrown into slavery by his brothers was used by our wonderful God to set the entire course of some of the most historically important events, the Exodus, into play.
Genesis 50:20-21, (Joseph said) - But as for you (my brothers), you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. Now therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones.” And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
The most beautiful part about this conversation was the end; despite everything Joseph's brothers had done to him, he comforted them and spoke kindly! The only reason Joseph could do this was because he could see God's plan. In other words, Joseph took the plank out of his eye before taking out the speck in his brothers' eyes (Matthew 7:5).