One thing about prayer…if you are willing to pray it, you’d better be ready for God to knock your socks off! As I have asked Him to open my eyes to various things, He has done exactly that! We (at least “I”) tend to spend lots of time asking God to get us OUT of uncomfortable situations. I have always read the “Count it all joy when you face trials of many kinds” verse, and skimmed over it as quickly and humanly as possible. After all, in our flesh, we can’t really count pain as joyful!
However, my prayer is changing. Instead of praying my way OUT of things, I’m slowly learning to pray my way THROUGH them. Today, as I was praying, He gave me the words “going deeper.” Sometimes, we see that on the surface and just think of going deeper or getting closer to God…all the while treading water, begging Him to pluck us out of it! Sometimes, He is asking us to go deeper…deeper into a struggle, deeper into pain and trials, deeper into learning about ourselves, deeper into our emotions, deeper into our past…not so we can stay in the muck of pain, but so that He can USE our muck to drive us to Himself!
You see, it’s not in the easy, carefree days and ways that He grows us. It’s not when we live status quo, “Content to be discontent” lives, that He transforms us. It’s when we allow ourselves to embrace the pain, learn from our struggles, understand our past, forgive those who have wronged us, and meet Jesus face to face, that He uses our situation to scrub off our rough edges and make us more like Him. It’s then that we discover plans and purposes He has for our lives that we would’ve missed without the painful places we’ve been. It’s then that He says, “This has nothing to do with you. I let you walk through this so you can help HER…or him, or them!)”
Will you join me in going deeper? Will you embrace the tough spots in your life? Will you open your hands, hand over the muck to God, and ask what He wants to do with it? We are quick to glorify Him when we feel glorious. It takes more faith and effort to make a sacrifice of praise…but He rewards those who seek and fear Him!
Lord, help us learn to praise you in the storm…even FOR the storm…and to ask you to show us what seeds of greatness you want us to harvest from our pain. Help us to seek great purpose in the good, bad, and ugly of life. Help us allow you to transform our lives! In Jesus’ name, Amen!