God gives us all kinds of experiences to enjoy. And sometimes, He gives us experiences that we do not enjoy. We don’t necessarily get to choose what our circumstances are, but we get to choose how we respond. The choices we make in reaction to our circumstances demonstrate the motivations of our heart. It is not only our action, but also our heart which God will judge (compare Jeremiah 11:20). This is why we get to have such a wide array of experiences. God tests us, expecting that we will navigate through our experiences, good and bad, without forsaking Him.

There are many stories in the Bible that review the range of experiences of being human. I am particularly fond of the story of Hannah. It gives us an example showing the unwavering trust in God through the good and the bad circumstances she experienced. She was barren for years, and at the brink of desperation, desiring a child. She pleaded before God to allow her to have a little boy of her own. Then she conceived and became tremendously thankful. To honor God’s generosity and mercy, she gave custody of her boy Samuel to the priest, placing him into the service of God. She proved her faith in the most trying times and then glorified God when He blessed her with the child she pleaded for (compare 1 Samuel 1:1-28).

We can learn much from Hannah’s attitude. In her song recorded in the Bible, we read about her wise perspective regarding God’s involvement in people’s lives: “The LORD kills and makes alive; He brings down to the grave and brings up. The LORD makes poor and makes rich; He brings low and lifts up. He raises the poor from the dust And lifts the beggar from the ash heap, To set them among princes And make them inherit the throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth are the LORD’S, And He has set the world upon them. He will guard the feet of His saints, But the wicked shall be silent in darkness. For by strength no man shall prevail” (1 Samuel 2:6-9).

From her words we understand how she acknowledges the power of God to expose us to experiences that run the gamut, from desperation to delight. However, she is wise enough to recognize that what really matters is that He is totally involved in the lives of His people, whether times are good or bad. Her response in both the good times and the tough times demonstrated consistent trust in Him, giving Him glory through it all. The range of circumstances that God allows or even prepares for us are there for us to learn from and use for our growth. The best part about His involvement is the overarching intent He has for us. He will protect and ultimately glorify those saints who are faithful to Him.

Sometimes, we might feel that life is not fair. But we must remember, God knows what He is doing and that He cares for us. Whatever it is that we experience is what He knows about and sometimes even directly prepares for us, so that we can take it as an opportunity to do good works (compare Ephesians 2:10). He knows that we can endure through the hard times. He gives us experiences to learn from, and in that, we should see those difficult circumstances as being valuable. When we are able to acknowledge this fact, it is easier to respond in faith, trusting Him as in the example of Hannah.

God never promised that life would be easy for those who obey Him. But He does promise that those who endure to the end will be saved (compare Matthew 10:22, Matthew 24:13, Mark 13:13). We can trust in this, helping us to not get distracted by the challenges we face.

When Israel was in the desert following their escape from slavery in Egypt, their lives began to take a new course. God released them from bondage and set them free. He chose Israel as a special people, giving them the opportunity to learn about the laws of God and discover the blessings that come from obedience. God looked at the big picture in this monumental act, knowing that the release from physical slavery was necessary for Israel to begin their journey towards spiritual freedom and growth.

Even though the Israelites cried out to God, asking Him to release them from slavery, they still found reason to complain when He finally emancipated them. They experienced miracles on their left, right and all around them! God opened the Red Sea to lead them away from the danger of the Egyptian army. God provided them with manna from heaven to feed them when they were hungry. He gave them water to drink from a rock when they were thirsty. He led them on a path of safety through the wilderness by a pillar of fire and a cloud of smoke. It was so obvious and clear that God was in their lives, blessing them on their journey, but it was not enough for them.

The question to ask is, why? Why couldn’t Israel see the mighty hand of God in their lives? Why couldn’t they see the big picture of what God was doing for them? The answer is that they had hardened hearts, mired in the world, swept away with the deceptive pleasures it promulgates. The words of the Bible instruct us to note how wrong this way of thinking is and to be different. “‘Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness, Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, And said, “They always go astray in their heart, And they have not known My ways.” So I swore in My wrath, “They shall not enter My rest.”’ Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God” (Hebrews 3:8-12).

Though Israel was free from bondage, drawn to God to follow Him, they were still stuck in the world. Their focus was not on God, but rather, on the physical comforts they craved. “But they sinned even more against Him By rebelling against the Most High in the wilderness. And they tested God in their heart By asking for the food of their fancy. Yes, they spoke against God: They said, ‘Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?’” (Psalm 78:17-19). They failed to appreciate what God was doing for them. Instead, all they could think about was their physical condition, and how they wanted more and more and more. But that which really mattered – their relationship with God – they completely neglected.

We have a lot that we can learn by considering the hard hearts of ancient Israel. It’s easy to judge their actions from the lens of hindsight, but we are not that much different. We have the same carnal nature as they did. However, we live in an age in which it is exponentially more difficult to keep our focus because we have so many more sensational distractions to entice our human desires!  If we are not vigilant, we may find ourselves following in the same hard-hearted pattern of living as ancient Israel.

Seeing this, it is prudent to turn our questioning inward. Do we see the mighty hand of God working in our lives? If there was a Scripture written about us, would it say the same kinds of things that the Bible says about ancient Israel? Would it say that we complained about not having our physical comforts given to us? Would it say that we failed to appreciate the spiritual gifts that God abundantly provides? I hope that what God sees in us is much better than that.

We have a tremendous opportunity to be saved from death that awaits us all, but we will only receive it if we overcome the world through Jesus Christ. That means that we must take stock of what matters in our lives and honestly evaluate whether we are investing ourselves virtuously. Do we care too much about what we can collect in this physical life? Do we let those things control our emotions and corrupt our values? I hope not, because we have something so much better to live for.

Just as God led Israel out of the bondage of Egypt, He leads us out of the slavery of sin. This fact is just as miraculous in our lives now as it was for Israel then. This is what should guide us and give us hope, because this is what matters.

When considering the creation of the universe and the life that resides on Earth, it is fascinating to contemplate the complexity involved. The function of the eyeball, which amazingly detects light and connects with the brain to stimulate the thought of an image boggles the mind. The planets, stars and other cosmic substances contain an ordered form that is stunning to see. The Earth resides in just the right place in the solar system, with just the right atmosphere that can sustain life. Even the simple building block of a protein molecule works in such a way that it functions in harmony with other protein molecules to fulfill very complex biological functions like digestion, immune response, and reproduction. Of course, we can go on and on with other examples of creation’s complexity and elegant beauty which demonstrate how all the many pieces fit together.

What also boggles my mind is how so many in the world attribute the complexity of the universe and miracle of life to randomness. To rely on randomness to produce the order we observe in our universe is ridiculous. The probability of producing ordered outcomes from a random process for even the simplest examples are infinitesimally small.

In his book “Solve for Happy,” Mo Gawdat uses a hypothetical example of a monkey typing at 220 words per minute to randomly generate a 9-word sentence. At that rate, it would take 2.5 billion-trillion-trillion-trillion-trillion-trillion-trillion times longer than the estimated age of the earth to produce the desired result. This, of course, is a much simpler task than something like creating life.

Another relatively simple example is the biological process of a protein molecule folding to achieve its stable structure needed to perform a function. The number of ways a protein can fold incorrectly is a massive 10⁷⁴, but there is only one correct way. For this to happen randomly is incomprehensibly improbable, especially when considering the finite age of the universe. Quoting from evolutionnews.org, “the number of ways you can assemble amino acids that won’t fold vastly exceeds the ways that will fold. To expect a random process to search ‘sequence space’ (the set of all sequences of amino acids) and arrive at one that folds is so highly improbable, it will likely never occur in multiple universes.” Just considering these basic examples of randomness applied to our world’s design exposes the problem of attributing order to random process. When acknowledging the vast complexity of creation, you would have to be crazy to think that it is the product of randomness.

It is a much saner position to attribute the ordered, complex beauty of creation to the Creator. The Bible tells us exactly how the universe came into being. God created it! “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth” (Psalm 33:6). Jesus Christ in His glorified state created everything. “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (John 1:3). He placed the planets and stars in just the right positions. He designed all life and its biological functions. He created it all, and He did not rely on randomness to accomplish it. He was very intentional in His design.

As plain as this Truth is, most of mankind pridefully rejects it. They would much rather trust randomness to explain the order that surrounds them. The Bible has an evaluation of this line of thinking. “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Professing to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:20-22). It is foolish to believe that randomness produced the universe! If applying the extremely improbable odds of randomness producing the universe to a different circumstance, such as winning the lottery, I doubt anyone would expect to win. Yet confoundingly, those same people trust in randomness as the source of creation with brazen certainty. Foolish indeed!

We are fortunate to understand the Truth of creation. Not only is the complexity and order of our physical universe awesome, but the implied meaning is even more amazing. God’s designed creation implies purpose! He has had a plan in mind since the very beginning, which is to bring us into His Family in glory to live with Him eternally. It is God, “who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began” (compare 2 Timothy 1:9).  We do not have to rely on randomness in our lives because God has a clear purpose for us. We can trust that with certainty.