What trial are you going through right now? Has it moved you to draw closer to the Lord, or caused you to wander off the path a bit? Has it caused you to dive into the Word, or have you tucked your Bible up on the shelf? Have you reached out to others who have gone, or are going through what you're experiencing, or have you tossed up those walls we're so great at putting up when we get hurt?
Sometimes the lesson may be hard to deal with. It may cause you to feel humiliated, ashamed, embarrassed, and you could also have wandered off the path a bit. You may also have put up walls and isolated yourself, all the while yearning for somebody to share your pain with. You could have been bitter and angry, and projected it all in the wrong places. The easiest thing for you to do would have been to cling to the Lord, yet all the same it was the easiest thing for you not to do.
The circumstances we deal with can bring us up or tear us down in our walks with Christ. It is in our ability to make them or break them. God has His perfect will, and it's not for us to wander away from Him. Paul wrote in the New Testament that God allows us to experience these trials in order that we will be able to minister to others. In the end, it works together for good, because ultimately we learn more about ourselves and more about God. And we will be able to sit next to that quiet, hurting person who became angry and bitter, who tucked their Bible on the shelf, who put up the walls, who wandered away. We'll be able to tell them it truly will be okay, because we've been through it.
Romans 8 : 28
All things work together for good to those who love the Lord, and are called according to His purpose.
(0635 06VII2008)