No shortcuts
Yesterday I was reading over a book from a conference I went to called “Restoring the Foundations.” The gist of what I was reading is that as God brings healing to different areas of your life He will often bring you through situations similar to those that started the hurt in the first place. I was reminded of a book I often read to my niece and nephew when they were little, “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.” In the book the characters are going on a bear hunt and as they go along they keep running into difficulties…mud, snow, etc. Everytime they come up to one of these they say “Oh no! We can’t go under it, we can’t go over it, we’ve got to go through it.” It seems like there is no shortcut to being transformed…you’ve got to go through it.
God certainly can miraculously change us and deliver us from our issues, but more often than not He chooses to involve us in a process that draws us closer and closer to Him. Something I heard recently in a Joyce Meyer sermon “God is more interested in doing something in you, than He is in doing something for you. If He can do something in you, then He can do something through you.” God doesn’t want to leave me the way I am with all the insecurities, fears, and destructive patterns of behavior that I’ve developed over my life. The only way to really have those things worked out though is for them to come to the surface and that can be a painful process. I have the reassurance though in Philippians 1 that “the One who began a good work in you will carry it on until it is completed.”
God doesn’t desert us in the midst of the process. Further on in Philippians 4 it says that “The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” God sees the entirety our situation, the depth of the struggle and provides peace that we can hardly grasp. I’ve been thinking a lot about the peace of God, because when I demand answers to the questions in my life it seems like God is just answering me with peace. I’m learning to appreciate what it means to be anxious over nothing, it does not mean that I will have nothing to be anxious about. It doesn’t mean that all of my prayers will be answered just the way that I want. It means that when I don’t have answers I’ll really understand the peace of God, because the peace that God offers can only be fully recognized when you have no answers and yet you have peace. I recently heard a quote from Joyce Meyer that says “There is no such thing as trust without unanswered questions.” Trust is evidenced by our ability to be anxious over nothing as we bring our requests to God. This peace that we receive guards our hearts and minds because it provides a way to see clearly, free from thoughts and decisions based on our perceptions and emotions.
I love the application of this in the next few verses of Philippians 4 where Paul says “I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” The secret of contentment is dependence on God for provision and strength. How can you come to depend on God unless you stop relying on yourself and how can you stop relying on yourself unless you’re brought through situations where your own efforts aren’t enough? Unless you go through times of want in addition to times of plenty you cannot really know the secret of contentment in all situations. Again, there is no shortcut to this lesson…dependence only comes by facing a time when you are utterly dependent.
Ultimately, going through the process involves believing that God really has a plan for my good, and my good doesn’t mean that I’ll always have an easy, painless, fun time of it. God’s plan also includes the good of all those who love Him, and are called according to His purpose, so most assuredly God will use my experiences to affect others. I’ll end with a quote I saw recently (thanks Lindsay) from Ben Patterson “What we see God doing is never as good as what we don’t see.”
