What is at the Bottom of Our Troubles?

People have always struggled with this age-old question: What is at the bottom of our troubles? No matter how hard we try, education and money never seem to erase our troubles. Instead, they seem to increase our awareness of them. The poorest as well as the richest are affected.

An inner voice keeps telling us something is missing. We feel “out of tune” with the Almighty God to whom we are accountable.

THE REAL CAUSE

Our troubles are only symptoms. The real cause is sin, or rebellion against God’s will. Self-will rises up against God and His sovereign rights over us. Sin in the heart works itself out in the life in different degrees and ways; but the results are the same – wrongdoing because of wrong choosing.

Sin not only offends God, but it also harms the sinner: “He who sins … wrongs his own soul” (Proverbs 8:36). We are warned that “whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Galatians 6:7). The effects of sin are sure, both here and in the hereafter.

DEATH NO CURE

Many would like to think that all their troubles end when they die; but death is no cure for sin, nor does it end the misery of the sinner. According to Revelation 21:8, all unrepentant sinners “shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

We know men suffer now because of sin. But consider what sin will mean in the hereafter, when all this world’s interests, excitements, and illusions are over, and the unrepentant soul experiences the dread reality of God’s judgment for sin!

We cannot save ourselves – our soul’s enemy is too strong for us. There is no remedy for sin in political changes, environmental changes, physical or mental changes, or scientific advances. Codes of honor or ethics don’t work either.

THE ONLY CURE

Only the One whom we have sinned against can save us from the burden and penalty of our sin: “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven … by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Only the death of Jesus Christ could pay the overwhelming debt of sin and secure for us divine forgiveness: “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

Christ is eager to save you: “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

THE CHOICE IS YOURS

Do you want to be free from the guilt and power of sin? Then come to the Lord Jesus now and confess your sins to Him, believing that He suffered and died to take them away. He promised, “The one who comes to me I will by no means cast out” (John 6:37). Won’t you come to Him right now?