Trials are a part of life. In fact, with the proper perspective, they can be the things in our life that produce the most growth. It's all about the choice of allowing the trial to use you, or deciding to use the trial for good. Here is what I mean.
When the storms of life strike, how do we react. Unfortunately our natural instincts are to question why is this happening, to tell ourselves we did something bad so we are being punished, or think we never catch a break, nothing good ever happens to us. We think it hurts too bad to go on. We will never recover. We allow it to use us by destroying our confidence, dilute our faith, and nurture lies about who we are, who God is, and what's possible. Don't let it use you...
Use it. I was listening to something the other day that was reminding me that the trials of life are just tests of our character. God is providing us with moments for us to remember who we are in Christ and he is there ready for us to call out to Him. This is an opportunity for us to practice being faithful, practice being strong, practice kindness instead of hate, exhibiting trust not fear. Every time we use a trial, we become stronger. Every time we realize the storm is upon us and we reach out to God in prayer, He answers. We use scripture like Romans 8:28 and Proverbs 3:5 to settle the ground beneath us. In our weakest moment, that is when the Holy Spirit is the strongest. Use the trial as a test that we've studied for and know the answers.
Always remember, things don't happen TO us, they happen FOR us. If this is our perspective then we will be prepared for the test.
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