Authors Note: I know it has been many, many months since I wrote a blog but I think you will understand after you read this why I took such a long break. I do hope my honesty is encouraging to whoever reads this post.
The fist line of my journal today reads “God, please show me how your are using this trial to supply my needs?” Truth is my husband and I are walking through on of the biggest trials or valleys of our life. Often times we just feel confused and don’t quite understand why God is taking us through this period of time and we wonder how long oh Lord is this going to last?
But God works in mysterious ways. Today and last night it was through three different sources – my bible study, the daily devotional that my husband and I do together each night and an article that I read – they all pointed me to this thought, what needs has God supplied through this trial?
We don’t often want to look to our trials to supply our needs, instead we beg and cry out to God to take away the trial, we tell him we can’t handle it, we don’t want it and we get angry with God for not protecting us from it.
But the more I walk through the valley, the more I see the ways God is using it. Yes, I don’t want to be here! I would rather learn these lessons some other way, but would I? Would I learn these lessons if I wasn’t walking through this trial? No, I wouldn’t and as much as it hurts to say that, it’s the truth.
Our trial has required of us to reduced our debt and start living more within our means than we ever have before. It has given us a new perspective on what is truly important in this life and I can tell you right now its NOT things of this world. It has taught me to be a prayer warrior and not just for myself but for my family, friends and my church. The most important lesson we are learning is TRUST, to trust God, to trust each other and to trust other wise Christians to walk along side us. God is also teaching us that he will supply the strength and grace we need to take each step, because he is walking with us even when we can’t see him.
In Job 2:10 it says “… shall we accept good from God and not trouble?” and in Romans 8:28 its says “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” (emphasis mine).
If God has chosen you, called you and you love Him, you must remember that God uses ALL THINGS (suffering, grief, trials, joy, thanksgiving), all things to work good in our lives. If you walk through life accepting only the good things from God but getting angry for the trials, you will miss a large portion of what God wants to teach you. So my challenge to you today, ask yourself “What is God teaching me through my suffering?”
At some point in the future, I am not sure when, I will share more details of our story, but for now my friends you just have to trust that I am not speaking from a place of ease and comfort but from the middle of one of the deepest darkest valleys of my life and I am still saying “God is Good! Trust him and look for the ways he is using your trials to teach you.” Some days its harder than others, but remember that God tells us in Matthew 6:25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?” Be encouraged today, God is always present and he will care for you.