When Faith Causes You Problem

Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me?”

Exodus‬ ‭5:22

We have been taught many times that having faith in God is all we need. Rest assured, He’ll take care of the rest. Well, Moses thought so too until he went straight to Pharaoh’s palace to deliver God’s message and Pharaoh blatantly refused to acknowledge his God. Of course, there might have been a chance that Moses would have thought of this possibility. However, what Moses didn’t see coming was getting rejected by the Israelites as well. They told him bluntly: “May the Lord look on you and judge you! You have made us obnoxious to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.” (Exodus‬ ‭5:21)

The truth is, our faith can sometimes cause problems in our lives, which can be deeply confusing. We’re often taught that faith solves problems, not creates them. But it seems that both of these statements are true, to a very real extent.

In fact, there are times, especially for new Christians, when believing has created more problems than it has solved. Even though we may know that faithfulness to God brings long-term dividends in spite of the fact that it may bring short-term pain, we still find it surprising when our faith causes difficulties in our lives.

Sometimes we know in our hearts that we are doing what God wants us to do. We can just feel the leadership of God in our lives. But then we begin to hit brick wall after brick wall, and the pharaohs of this world don’t understand. And what may be worse, the very people we’re trying to communicate with, to help, don’t accept us either.

These are the two major causes of problems when we choose to live our Christianity on a daily basis. It was that way for Moses, and it is still that way for us. Even if we doubt it, we are promised that when our faithfulness causes problems, God’s faithfulness will see us through.

However, we must also do what Moses did at such moments. “Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me?” (Exodus‬ ‭5:22). ‬‬‬‬Just like Moses returned to the Lord, we must return to him also for further instructions and comfort.

PRAYER