“I dreamt that I was trapped in a burning room … As I gasped for breath, a hand appeared behind the flames, beckoning me to come … Still, I hesitated. How could I walk through the fire?” Anonymous in Courage To Change
Just like I said in “Delivered In A Day,” I prefer a fast delivery out of whatever problem I’m dealing with. After coming out changed, though, I’ve begun accepting, honoring, and even being grateful sometimes for the time it takes. God’s let me go through problems instead of removing them. He’s left them in my life just long enough to change me the way He wanted me changed.
It’s seldom us waiting on Him anyway. He’s waiting on us slow learners to “get it.” When we’re walking through a fire in our lives, we see destruction. He sees refinement, which is why He doesn’t extinguish it right away.
In November 2016, I watched part of a video of a family driving through the Gatlinburg, Tennessee fires that engulfed the town. I turned it off because it was hard to listen to their screams and the panic in their voices. They made it through, but some people didn’t.
Stuff like that still makes me wonder why? I know part of the reason is we live in a broken world, and we’re the ones who broke it. The other part is about how much God wants to save us. He brings us through hard times to bring us to Him.
We change by way of three things: we’re given enough, we learn enough, and we’re in enough pain.
Our problem is that most of us have to go through problems in learn. We learn the hard way – by pain.
When we get to the end of ourselves and get on our knees, our problems teach us lessons, build our faith, and help us help others who go through it too. If every mess ended up on the fast track to a miracle, we’d hardly notice what God did for us before we asked for another miracle and another one and another one.
Our problems also show off God’s goodness when He delivers us in His way and in His time.
Just like in the book of Daniel (chapters 3 and 6), He delivered Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the fiery furnace and Daniel from the lions’ den. When He does that kind of thing for us, and He does, we need to go tell the world about Him so that they’re saved too.
Are you learning from your problems or making more problems for yourself by lingering in the pain?
In This Together,
Kim
