Dear Precious Friends,
On this beautiful new day, this gift from God, I pray you are waking up knowing He has given us all a new day because He has work for us to do.
We have all walked through hard times and life continues to bring difficulties. When these difficulties come at us we have the opportunity to live out our faith more than ever.
We just have to stop ourselves from looking at things from our perspective and immediately take our thoughts captive to Him and remember what His word says. He told us in this world we will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world.
John 16:33
We know His promises are Yes and Amen. His word is our absolute truth. He has a purpose for all that happens to us. He promises to never leave us or forsake us. (Hebrews 13:5)
Have you ever asked these questions:
If God loves me, why doesn’t He change this?
If God can do all things, why doesn’t He fix this?
What is God’s purpose in allowing me to go through this hardship?
It is in our nature to want the reasoning behind the difficulties we experience. We look and long for a lesson within the pain, a redemptive purpose, and a gradual resolution.
The older I get, and the more I am around others who endure hardships, the more I realize that our difficulties are more about God and what He wants to accomplish in our lives, than about us. They are more about the glory He wants to receive, and the way He wants to mold us into the likeness of His Son.
Why does God why ask us to do hard things:
He wants to mold and shape our character. Scripture tells us: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). The very next verse tells us WHY and HOW God works for the good in all things: “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son” (Romans 8:29). That means the “good” that God works toward in our difficulties isn’t necessarily an eventual blessing or a realized dream, but the transformation of our character into Christ’s. Hard things make us more like Jesus.
It is His perogative. Simply stated, He is the Creator, we are the created. He is God and we are not. When we realize our lives are not our own, we can more readily accept what God allows into our lives and trust that He knows what He’s doing. Scripture says “you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies” (1 Corinthians 6:20). If you and I call Jesus our Savior, then He is also our Master and we are owed nothing, but exist to please Him and we do so, gladly, because He’s a loving master and we wouldn’t want to be in the service of anyone else. Hard things remind us that He is God and we are not.
Since God is going to do what He is going to do, it helps for you and me to keep in mind these things about the character of our Loving Master:
He is more concerned about our eternal state than our temporary happiness.
You’ve heard it said “God’s aim is not to make us happy, but to make us holy.” Well, it’s true.
He is good and loving and cannot act apart from His nature.
Therefore, we see as bad, hard, or painful, God still sees as loving and eternally good for you. I find comfort in that. Instead of instantly demanding a “reason” from God, I find peace and comfort by acknowledging He is in control and He is always good and nothing touches us that hasn’t first passed through His loving hands. That fact takes away the randomness of pain. It also takes away the desire to blame. We can then respond with a quiet surrendered trust in the One who allows whatever comes our way.
He knows what’s best and what He’s protecting us from.
I learned long ago that when God closes a door, allows an injury to slow us down, lets our car break down just before the trip, delays the plane, or allows us to go through a disappointment, hardship or learning curve, He is not only preparing us for something to come, but He is often protecting us from something we can’t (and might not ever) see. I’d much rather have a wise, all-knowing, all powerful God engineering the events of my life than to be thinking I’m running it myself, not knowing what lurks around the corner or waits for me further up the road.
If God asking us to do something hard right now, we Embrace it. Trust that He knows what He’s doing and thank Him for the opportunity we've been given to gradually become more like Jesus.
AMEN!
Source: Gods word, Holy Spirit, Crosswalk
