Last night at ladies' group, we started a new study by Beth Moore called Living Beyond Yourself. It's already rocking my world. I started my first day of "homework" this morning, and Acts 14:22 really settled upon my heart and mind. I needed this to be my lesson for today, and as a preparation for future times, when I am sure hardships will increase in number and intensity.
Acts 14:22
...strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. "We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God," they said.
I will never forget the moment when I understood the spiritual truth that the Lord gives us hardships to make us better. I cannot recall where I was sitting, or what age I was, or what caused the revelation, but the moment is vivid in my memory. Trials and tribulations finally had purpose, and I understood. Just like James explains, God desires us to be transformed into the likeness of His perfect Son, to be mature and complete, not lacking anything. And He uses the difficult seasons of our lives to accomplish just this objective.
I wonder today what the Lord is preparing me for, come future times. His ways are higher than ours, and we will not know what's to come until it happens. Ever feel like you are halfway living in the unknown? Beyond yourself? It's exciting if we allow God to handle it all. That's how it's meant to work. I'm just now understanding this, and I'm not altogether successful, by any means. I have days when all aspects of the unknown seem like my enemy. Rather, the unknown is comparable to those paintings where the color can only be revealed by sunlight; a portion of God's painting is colored in invisible ink, only to revealed by the light, when the time is right. My responsibility is to wait in faith, and trust the work, the brush strokes being painted in the lines...
By strength and encouragement in the truth, hardship makes us better.
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