A viewer recently wrote David Servant asking why they were brought into existence in a world of suffering against their will. In this Little Lesson, David offers counsel to all who are suffering and wish they had never been born. Learn more!
One of our viewers has written to us, obviously in a place of great pain or sadness or discouragement and wondering about the fairness of God even bringing them into existence in light of their current circumstance. Let me read the actual letter to you here so you can get an idea of where this person’s coming from and see maybe if you can identify on some level, as I know that I can. Not at this moment, but in some of the darker times of my life, I’ve certainly questioned, “why do I have to exist?”
And so, listen to this. They wrote, “I’m sure heaven is unbelievably great. But in my opinion, it’s not worth all the pain of this life.” And then they say, “No matter how brief it might be.”
Well, that’s an underestimation of how great heaven is. Okay? Paul said in one place, he was trying to decide whether he should stay or leave. That is, go to heaven. And he said to depart and be with Christ is far better. And of course, Jesus promised his disciples when he was leaving them, he said, “I’m going to go and prepare a place for you. And I’ll be back to get you.” And the Bible talks about how God’s going to be showing us throughout all eternity the riches of his grace. And so eye has not seen and ear has not heard the wonderful things that God has prepared for those who love him. So if you think that what you’re going through is not worth enduring to ultimately gain heaven. I’m just telling you, you’re wrong.
Giving up your life is worth it, according to the scripture, in order to gain heaven. Giving up everything and anything to gain heaven. Remember that story that Jesus told about the guy who was walking across this neighbor’s field one day and he stumbled upon a treasure there that perhaps had just been recently exposed by a rainstorm or something. And he quickly goes and he buys the field. But in order to buy the field, he sells everything he has to get that field. And no doubt, if we fill in the details of that story, all of his relatives and friends were talking about him behind his back saying, “Well, what an absolute fool, this guy has liquidated everything he owns to buy this field for which he is greatly overpaying. It’s not worth it. It’s just another field like any other field.” But he had secret knowledge that the owner of the field didn’t have, and no one else had. He knew there was a treasure there.
And Jesus said that’s how the kingdom of heaven is. It’s worth giving up everything, it’s worth enduring anything in order to gain. So I’m just addressing the first sentence of this dear person’s letter. They said, “I’m sure heaven is unbelievably great, but in my opinion, it’s not worth all the pain of this life.” Now this person’s obviously going through some rough times. So then they said, “So, when I asked God to have mercy on me and pluck me out of existence, why doesn’t he do it?” Oh boy, my heart goes out to you.
So I think many of us have faced challenges and trials during our lives, either because we’re trying to serve Jesus or just because we’re just facing trials. And maybe we’ve contemplated we should take our lives, that would be an easy way out, or question why God is allowing this to happen and so forth.
And so you find people in the Bible like that too. So, you don’t want to condemn yourself for feeling that way. I was just reading recently about Elijah after he had that wonderful experience of calling down fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice in the presence of 450 prophets of Baal who had been trying all day to get Baal to hear their prayer and they got nowhere. But then when the wicked queen Jezebel heard that all of her profits had been an annihilated by Elijah by the way, he had to go run for his life. And he ran into the wilderness and he was asking God to take his life.
So some of the greatest Bible characters like Elijah, a mighty man of God, reached a place of despair. And if you read the Psalms, of course, you can see that David was in a great place of despair at times. But he often finished those Psalms in which he complained and griped about his current situation. He ended those Psalms by praising and rejoicing in God and expressing his faith in God that the Lord was going to write the end of the story and the story wasn’t over yet. Because God in heaven is paying attention.
So let me say that to you, if you’re discouraged or, to this particular viewer who wrote. God’s not answering your prayer because God has something so much better for you. And I guarantee you, if you’ll follow Jesus and continue to follow Jesus, one day, you’re going to be so glad that God didn’t answer that prayer that he would pluck you out of existence. See this person wants just to disappear and be gone and have no consciousness whatsoever.
He goes on to say, and this is obviously from a place of pain, “I can understand why God might choose not to bless me like other people.” So this this viewer is making a comparison and seeing other people that seem to be more blessed than he or she is and yet he says that he understands why. You’re not revealing that to me in this letter.
“But why won’t he just erase me from existence and never bring me back? I feel like I was brought into exist against my will.” Well, okay. I appreciate your writing that, because you’re being so honest. Yes. You were brought into existence against your will because before you existed, you had no will. Like everyone else, like all of us. Okay? But let me tell you, God is good. And if he brings you into existence, it’s because he has a good plan for you that is to your blessing and benefit.
And I think the Bible is pretty clear on this, that as I said earlier on in this little teaching, eye has not seen, ear has not heard all the things that God has prepared for those who love him. And those blessings, we don’t have to wait until heaven to receive some of God’s blessings. Oh my goodness, if we’ll repent of our sins and begin to follow Jesus and serve him and love him and begin to work on loving him with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength, that doesn’t exempt us from trials and temptations and problems. But it does bring a huge enhancement to our lives. I mean, just knowing God, that’s the great prize right there. Just being able to look at creation. I mean, look at these trees, look at this beautiful field, listen to the birds singing and so forth. That’s just a tiny little speck of God’s work to delight our eyes and to bless us and to send us little messages that he loves us, okay?
So no matter what you’re facing, look at the bright side. You can complain that rose bushes have thorns, or you can rejoice that thorn bushes have roses. That’s a quote by Abraham Lincoln, and he faced some tough times, didn’t he? Okay. But he had faith in the Lord and the Lord brought him through it. And if Abraham Lincoln was here today, he’d be saying to you the same thing. And if Jesus was here instead of me, he’d be telling you what he said in his Word. Don’t let your heart be troubled and trust in God and he’s going to bring you through.
Dive into his promises. That’s where all the blessing is. And he does respond to faith. I got to tell you that. And I’m not God, I didn’t make the rules, but God responds when people trust him and believe his promises. The eyes of the Lord are searching to and fro across the whole earth it says in second Chronicles, 16. God’s looking for those whose hearts are his. So that’s what you want to be.
Okay out of time for today. Hey, if you’ve never read my book called God’s Tests, it’d be a great book for this person that wrote this letter to me to read. You can read it for free. And it’s just full of biblical truth that will help you to get through the tough times that we all face and to understand what God’s up to behind the scenes.
Okay. Thanks so much for joining me, until next time. May the Lord bless you.
