Don’t be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering. 1Peter 4:12 (NIV)
The fall is the way we usually refer to the sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve, and all its disastrous effects. The first sin was not the only sin, it was the beginning of a pattern of rebellion against God that has run throughout history and continues today.
We are members of a human race that is at war with God—a war that He will win. But God has offered amnesty to any who will give up the fight against Him. He invites us to surrender to Him (in repentance and faith), and to all who do He promises that He will take us out of this world before His final judgment comes. Until that day, we live in a war zone.
If your kids expect the world, make sure you tell them what kind of world to expect. Tell them about the First World War, where thousands died for no good reason, and the Second World War, where millions died because of an awful evil. Tell them about the genocide of Cambodia and Rwanda. Tell them about September 11th. Tell them about the terrible power of evil at work in the world. Tell them that the human heart is deceitful and desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9).
And when they say, “That’s not fair,” tell them that the world isn’t fair, and if you grow up expecting the world to be fair, you will be deeply disappointed. Give them a Christian view of this world—created perfectly by God, but tragically fallen through sin, and now under sin’s awful curse. Painful trials are not strange when you live in a fallen world.
Have you come to grips with the kind of world that we live in?
