10.10.11 "God's Plan of Trouble"

"God's Plan of Trouble"

Jeremiah 14:11-16:15
I Thessalonians 2:9-3:13
Psalm 80:1-19
Proverbs 25:1-5

Do you ever feel like Christian growth is a process of 2 steps forward & one step back? Maybe you feel like it's the other way around: 1 step forward & 2 steps back. What causes us to feel that way? Usually it's a trial of some shape or size that knocks us off our horse. 

Why do trials have such a strong effect on us? Especially when we've made some step of obedience to grow in God? I think it's because we don't expect them. We forget a great principle:

TRIALS PLAY A KEY ROLE IN GOD'S PLAN!

If you don't know this, you've probably been blindsided many times. In I Thes. 3:3 it says, "But of course you know that such troubles are a part of God's plan for us Christians." We also read in James 1 how we are to consider them "pure joy". 

We nod our heads in Sunday School like we understand, but when these theoretical trials become OUR real life trials, we whine and want to quit. There are times in my life where I've surrendered something to God. I've followed his command. Because I went through so much, I catch myself subconsciously feeling that "God owes me." My attitude is that of, "Ok, I did this for you, so you better make my path smooth!" Sounds foolish, right? I'm sure you've never done it! 

I can't tell you how many times I see people giving up on their progress in a marriage relationship because they hit a bump in the road. They give up on things that God has called them to do because of circumstances that have happened. Paul must have seen this too. In verse 5 he says, "... when I could bear the suspense no longer I sent Timothy to find out whether your faith was still strong. I was afraid that perhaps Satan had gotten the best of you and that all our work had been useless."

I'm sick of seeing Satan getting the best of Christians. It really irritates me. I've seen it over and over again. Christians bail on their progress because "it's just too hard". The writer of Hebrews says in 12:5, "In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood." Yet, we lose heart long before that point. 

Today's Proverb 25:4 says, "When you remove dross from silver, you have sterling ready for the silversmith." How is dross removed? It's by heating it up and skimming off the top. Going through the trial is the way we get "heated up". More often than not, our response is to pull out of the process long before there's an opportunity for the dross to come off. Because of that, we're left with the same impurities that we had before. Then the process must be repeated. 

We shoot ourselves in the foot. We want God to use us, so he begins to prepare us. We don't like the process, so we pull out... then we wonder why he's not using us. We get stuck in this cycle over and over and over. 

How about when the next trial comes, we recognize the nastiness that rises up within us as dross and let him skim it off? Then see what happens. Dross is ugly. We're not going to like it. It's going to make us vulnerable, and maybe even ashamed. When we pull out of the process too soon, we let Satan get the best of us. That's not God's plan, and it shouldn't be ours. These trials are a part of growing up. Expect them. Expect to dig deeper into the Word when they come. Expect to learn. Expect to come through it better for it. A trial is not a step backward. If we allow God to do his work, each trial is 2 steps forward. 




Through the Power of the Spirit,
Live the DREAM!

Pastor Greg Lathe

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