Like a diamond being formed under pressure, there are things within us that can only be developed through experiences we would never have chosen for ourselves.
I think sometimes we’re given this idea that once we decide to dedicate our lives to Jesus and accept him as our Lord and Saviour, everything should suddenly be okay. That life should become easier, the problems should disappear, and whenever something difficult comes our way, we should simply pray it away.
But I don’t think that’s always the reality of walking with God.
If anything, when we choose Jesus, we become even more aware of the battle around us. We are not promised a life without trials, pain, disappointment or difficult seasons. We are still human, and feeling things, both the good and the bad, is part of that human experience.
So maybe the answer isn’t always to pray the trial away.
Maybe sometimes we should pray for the strength to go through it.
Pray for the desire to keep going when we don’t feel like it. Pray for the wisdom to understand what the experience is teaching us. Pray that God uses what we go through to build something stronger within us.
Because sometimes the trial isn’t there to destroy us, it’s to refine us.
Like a diamond being formed under pressure, there are things within us that can only be developed through experiences we would never have chosen for ourselves. Our patience, our character, our compassion, our faith, our ability to forgive, our dependence on God.
So instead of only asking, “God, please take this away,” start to also ask, “God, what can you create in me through this?”
Let every difficult season produce something. Let it birth stronger fruit of the Spirit. Let it make us more patient, more loving, more gentle, more faithful and more like Jesus.
I don’t want to look back at every trial and only see something I survived. I want to be able to look back and see who I became because God carried me through it.
Sometimes God doesn’t remove us from the fire, he meets us in it, stays with us through it, and uses it to make us new.
And I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to go through a difficult trial and come out the same person I was before it. I want to be made new in a way that allows God to use me more. I want every experience to shape me into someone who can love more deeply, serve more intentionally and connect with his children in a way that ultimately brings them closer to him.
Because if I have to go through the fire, I want to come out looking more like Jesus.
Prayer:
Dear heavenly Father, in every trial give us the strength to endure, the wisdom to learn and the willingness to allow you to transform us into who you have called us to be. May we never leave a difficult season the same way we entered it, but come out with stronger faith, deeper character and a heart that looks more like yours. Amen.
Scriptures of encouragement:
And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope. Romans 5:3 – 4
But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. James 1:4
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Galatians 5:22 to 23
SL