Over the last few months, I’ve been facing an increase in trials, and at the same time, receiving some divine appointments. Is it strange to same I’m encouraged in it? My pastor once said, “Don’t be scared when you face opposition or trials, be scared when you’re not.”   The devil wouldn’t be causing such a stir if we weren’t a threat to him. The closer we get to Christ, the hotter the devil turns up the heat.

“More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”  Romans 5:3-5

God allows these trials to strengthen our confidence in Him, as it provokes a walk in obedience to His word, so that, He can wean milk-drinkers off baby food and train them how to eat the meat of His word and be strengthened from the inside out by His Spirit.

I think sometimes when we find ourselves in a ‘situation’ and feel the heat, our natural inclination is to back out of it thinking we must have made a mistake, ‘for the favor of God doesn’t seem to be upon us’. But if we only understood the painful process Paul is referring to, I think we may press into the heat when everything of us wants to pull back. This is how God refines us by fire.

The confidence in what we cannot see should be a little uncomfortable at times; being stretched is how we grow. Following Christ is an unnatural transformation, from self-loving to sacrifice, from selfishness to serving others. Jesus tells us to ‘count the cost’ before deciding whether or not we want to follow Him.

What I’m experiencing is how to love God and love others with a drastically different, and unnatural, sacrificing love. It’s been a process. What I’m learning is how to ask God for hard things, expecting the hurricanes from hell to come wreaking havoc in what I claim as my life. However, the important part in these storms is this: that I’m not looking around for the quickest escape route. My trust is in God as we weather out the storms together.

God, never do I need you more than in the midst of these trials that toy with every emotion in me. My heart is deeply grieved, my joy saddened. This isn’t easy, sometimes seems not even fair. But I know you have something even deeper you’re working for your glory out of this. So I will choose to rejoice in this suffering, that your glory would triumph and be made known. You are victorious my King, and I claim your victory over any tribulation in my life. Amen.