Many times, we want to be used by God, we just don’t see how He can use us in our difficult circumstances.
We can solve other people’s problems, but not so much our own. How can we possibly shine forth and be used by God in our current painful problems? Yet, we’re exactly where God can do His wonderfully unique and great work on our behalf as we call on Him.
In fact, that problem wall that you’ve been hitting your head against? That might be God. It’s often the way He shows us something He wants us to see. All the while, you’ve been looking around for a way of escape.
Certainly we are to pray for relief and for our burden to be lifted, but there is often more we are to seek. Besides relief, we are to seek God. We are to grow in our understanding of Him in our difficulties. This means listening to Him and growing. Sometimes there is something we are to do different than we have been doing. When we learn or do whatever it is, (even messily), that’s when God’s glory and power are most evident!
Here are some reasons God allows our trails and some things He often has in mind for us to learn in them:
A) God wants us to learn to lean on Him. This doesn’t come naturally. Our perplexing, baffling, painful problems are intended to drive us to seek God and cry out for His intervention. Otherwise, we have it quite under control, thank you very much. We often want God to fix the problem, when He wants to show us something. Leaning on God is often messy, especially in the beginning. It often begins with desperate simple prayers like, “Please, God help. I have no idea what to do. I’ve tried everything and seem to be making things worse. Show me what I need to know or do.”
B) Sometimes God wants us to see ourselves as we truly are—with our sins that bind and hinder us, our needs, and our places we need to grow. We are to see our total incapability, but first we have to come to the end of ourselves and our own resources. This can take time, because we can be quite resourceful when it comes to avoiding honestly looking at ourselves. So seeing our weaknesses, failings, and needs and then seeking God (and His solution, strength or guidance) is a good thing. Discovering the brick wall of our limitations is often the only thing that can make us seek God and apply His solutions and truth.
C) If you’re seeking God, He may have you where you are so that you can shine His light into that current dark circumstance. Sometimes He does not put His children who have His light, among others who also shine. Sometimes, you find yourself alone. It’s all the more reason He needs your light to be a reflection of Him in that dark, lonely place. It’s all the more reason, you have to lean on Him.
D) He may have you where you are as a testing place and a training ground. In this case, as you lean on Him and grow in His truth, you can be pretty sure, He has greater works planned for you. Be faithful. Don’t give up.
E) Pray for a miracle. These may be quick or slow miracles. Either way, keep your eyes on Him with thankfulness for His intended goodness on your behalf. Determine to stay true to God and pliable to His Spirit.
Whatever your circumstances, look to the Bible for an example of someone to emulate. Find someone from the Bible, as inspiration, someone who demonstrated faithfulness and a positive, right response in their difficulties.
“The people of God who pray and trust in His unseen presence will rise up triumphantly.” -Building Faith with Bible Pathway Dr. John Hash
Got problems? Seek God and He can do His best work in and through you, no matter what your difficulties.
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8 NIV
