Part
2 Beholding the Bud
Some
of the most hurtful things in my past seemed hurtful because I lacked
the ability to understand why they happened. I couldn't understand
the motives and presumed they were against me and meant for my harm.
Having been taught that our God is omnipotent and powerful to rule
over everything that exists, I had a tendency to ultimately "blame"
Him. But I struggled with this. After all, why would the God who
claims that He loves me allow me to be hurt? I didn't dare to
challenge Him - I believed that He meant what He said, but things
didn't add up. It only stood to reason that He had to have allowed
it, so confusion prevailed ... until He crushed all of my previous
incomplete perceptions. At times we may make presumptions in order to
reason or "understand" things that aren't clear to us and
we measure the motives for these things with worldly perspective.
It's what we're taught by the powers that exist in this world and I
confess that at one time I was guilty of following this persuasion.
But
it's when we believe in faith that His word is true in all things,
including when He tells us that He loves us, that we can presume that
His motives are pure and perfect and we begin to look for His good
work in us ... His true motivation.
Romans
8:28 NLT
"And
we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of
those who love God and are called
according to his purpose for them."
We
can then begin to see things in an entirely different way. When we
look to Him in true faith, we can learn to see things through
different eyes - Godly eyes. This requires that we move outside of
the comfortable box of our worldly reasoning and accept simply by
faith the fact that God is good and that everything He does or allows
is meant for our good as He promised - whether we're able to
understand it at the time or not.
"We
can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we
know that they are good for us -- they help us learn
to endure."
It's
a different perspective and there are some things that we won't be
able to understand until He decides to reveal them to us. But by
accepting His word in faith we're empowered to endure and move
forward in Godly confidence in the work of His good intention. Living
by faith in what we can't see or understand is a risk by worldly
standards, but it's also the key to experiencing all that God in His
loving, perfect wisdom has promised. It's the learned worldly
standards and the weaknesses of our flesh that are the problem ...
His truth is empowering!
James
1:2-4
2
"Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let
it be an opportunity for joy. 3 For when your faith is tested, your
endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your
endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and
ready for anything."
I
didn't come to my belief in these things by accident or simply by
accepting them. I was governed by an incomplete and damaged
perception of my God from my youth that was too deeply ingrained in
my understanding to simply dismiss. So it became necessary for Him to
break it down - to crush it so He could rebuild it correctly. It was
only by His grace and mercy that I came to recognize that if our
understanding of who He is is lacking, if we don't really come to
know Him intimately, our faith could be in serious trouble...
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