I'm in the habit of reading Dr. Charles Stanley's devotionals (sign up at InTouch.org - they are free, and greatly useful). Today's was entitled "Our Trials" and it immediately caught my attention (by divine design, I'm sure, since I'm currently up to my eyeballs dealing with little life challenges).
The devotional mentions that we all have trials, both the believer and the unbeliever, and outlines that these troubles can come from various sources:
1) Other peoples' sin. I've always envisioned this as someone jumping up and down in the "mud-puddle of sin" and anyone nearby is going to get splashed to a certain degree. The closer you are to the sin, the muddier you're going to get.
2) Spiritual Warfare - Satan attacks anyone who is a threat to his mission, so I guess when Satan trips you up and frustrates your work, that's a good thing. Looking at the big picture, that is. You're valuable enough to God to warrant Satan's attention.
3) Our own sin. Kind of a no-brainer. It's going to come back and bite us sooner or later.
4) Trials from God Himself. You can be sitting there minding your own business, and along comes trouble.
The overall message in the devotional is that no matter what the source of your difficulties, God has a reason and a purpose for allowing them. He will take them and use them to accomplish something good. Maybe in you. Maybe in someone else. Maybe in a lot of people. And He will always bless you for your faithfulness in going through the trials in the right way - His way.
I was imagining baking a cake. All these raw ingredients are in The Bowl That Is You. You've got some raw eggs, some flour, some sugar, some baking powder... And it's neither tasty nor useful. But beat up those ingredients a little bit, and put them through the fire, and they change. You end up with something really good. As long as you don't forget the leavening agent, which is Jesus Christ, who makes sure the whole mess is raised up properly, your cake won't fall flat. And personally, if I'm going to get beat up by life and go through the fire, I'd rather not fall flat.
As you enter into a time of trial, don't forget God is allowing it for a reason and a purpose, will limit it to the shortest amount of time necessary, and He will never leave your side as you walk through it. Trusting Him is a choice. Keep your eyes on Him and take it one step at a time. There's blessing on the other side of this.
