It’s hard not to be resentful for our problems.
Why do these things happen to us? It’d be so nice if things would go right for once. Everybody else seems to have it better than us. Why is it that just when things seem to get going well that some new bomb falls on our heads? That’s the way we usually react to adversity.
The “mistaken” spiritual approach.
Of course we are Christians. Of course we are going to take our burdens to the Lord. In fact, doesn’t it say in 1 Peter 5:7, “casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you”? We are going to rush to the Lord when fear hits us. We pray our hearts out for Him to solve the problem, relieve pressure and to MAKE THIS GO AWAY FAST. We are handling our adversity, we think, in a spiritual way because we’re praying about it, but that’s not really the whole picture. When we’re stuck here, we’re actually missing the point.
God sends adversity to connect with us.
It’s not just to send us back to our “prayer closet” to send up more requests for relief. He wants to build a stronger relationship with us. He knows if everything goes well we’ll forget about him. We’ll take things for granted. We’ll gradually slide over to the unspoken assumption that we have things under control. Life is not hard we can handle it and as a result God always gets pushed to the back burner. Like a relative we love but never visit.
When we’re weak we are strong.
Let’s not blame God for everything, the truth is lots of our adversities are things we bring on ourself. Regardless of how things come they overwhelm us. The great thing about that is that it reminds us of our weakness and drives us to experience God’s strength. ***This is the lesson the Apostle Paul had to learn.
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28)
Be content in our troubles because it makes us more aware of our connection to God and his strengths than we otherwise would be. The source of our strengths becomes the life of Christ in us. Going through these trials teaches us that we can relax in full confidence of his faithfulness to care for us. In life, we will have adversities and as we mature we realize we can be content in them as we trust in the Lord to deliver us.
So the truth is that adversity actually works to our advantage. It becomes a bridge that builds strengths in our relationship with the Lord.
***For more insight on this listen to Adversity, Burden or Bridge by Charles Stanley at www.intouch.org
