Whenever I ask a saint what their life verse is, I find it was always born out of a great trial.
I want you to know, no matter what you are going through, you are not alone. No matter the trial, God is with you. In His economy, no suffering is wasted, but useful for the making of a saint.
Never imagine God intended to give you an easy life. God does not make your life easy because an easy life would not make the saint He wants you to be.
But never think God does not care, for there is nobody that cares for you and loves you more than He. Though you may not always understand, I pray that you will still learn to trust Him in your trials.
Shaping the saint: There are two forces that create the nature of Christ in you: an outward breaking away, and an inward giving away. The outward is the hammer and chisel of external circumstances. The inward is the willing submission of your life to Jesus. The less submission, the harder the hammer must strike you.
As a diamond is formed in adversity, so it is that the Lord allows His servants to be formed. Never think the tough times have no meaning, as they are the times that have the most meaning in who we become.
A sculptor uses a hammer and chisel to break away those things that do not belong to the finished masterpiece. God is the Sculptor and your circumstances are His hammer and chisel. Everything that stands between you and Him is what He is removing. “And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make” (Jeremiah 18:4).
Changing the saint: Do you want to know what God wants to change in you the most? Simply look at the trials you are going through. He engineers your circumstances to change you or those around you.
Your life is the classroom and your circumstances the lesson. The hardest lesson is the one that grows you the most. “Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy” (Psalm 126:5).
You never have to pray for a trial, because they come without asking. It is by the trials where we really learn how to pray. Be honest, you are closest to God in the greatest trials.
The Lord builds up our trust by giving us trials in which trusting Him is all we can do. “The Lord is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble; And He knows those who trust in Him” (Nahum 1:7).
Revealing the saint: Adversity is the window through which we can see how much we trust God. Nothing exposes your heart faster or with greater clarity that adversity.
Trials are the lenses in which God allows you to see yourself as you really are.
If you didn’t have the trials, you wouldn’t know what you were made of. “… the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart…” (Deuteronomy 8:2). The wilderness you are in reveals the heart that is in you.
Glory in tribulation: Tribulation is the currency that either buys character or is squandered away into bitterness. Never waste suffering. You are going to pay a price, so let it at least count for something. “…we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope” (Romans 5:3-4).
Never squander that which only adversity can produce in your life. Consider that God places His greatest treasures on the saints that endure the greatest hardships.
Don’t despise the trial, but embrace what it will produce. You must be broken that you can be made new. Your heavenly Father loves you perfectly, no exception.
We waste all our energy trying to overcome adversity instead of allowing it to have its holy work in our heart. “In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: Surely God has appointed the one as well as the other…” (Ecclesiastes 7:14).
The blessing is not in the process, but the result.
Blessings to you,
Paul
Amen. Saints are not born they are made in the crucible of life by His wisdom and grace.
“And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth”
Brian
Such a good word, I like you said “Saints are not born they are made…”. We struggle in the process, as we lay on the potters wheel being beat down by the circumstances of life. Yet if we could only see how He sees us, we would never question Him again.
It’s often not easy to remember as we’re going through terrible times that God is with us. I try to remind myself when things are awful and my life is in an uproar that I’m not alone, God has me, He knows how this will end, and all will be well. Your post helps make sense of why He allows us to have those bad times. Thank you for that 🙂
I think that sometimes it is in the worst of times where we struggle with the goodness of God the most. Though we want Him to carry us, we wonder why He would allow something that would require us to be carried. There are some things that I can only trust Him without understanding, and base my understanding of God in the Word and not by my circumstances.