Yesterday I talked about how God knows you and places you where you are, even hard situations, so that you can trust and express His life and victory. I also wrote about knowing yourself, strengths and weaknesses, can be a great asset. And pain does not equal a mistake.
Today, I want to take the encouragement a little further.
What happens when you try to fix a mistake that wasn’t a mistake? I’m not talking about getting away from things that you had no business doing or direction for. I’m also not talking about sin, self-righteousness, hyporcrisy, or anything like that.
When there is pain in our lives, we first draw the conclusion that we’ve messed up—or at least I do. My first thought is that I have done something wrong. It’s not that God is punishing me so much as I believe the pain must be consequences of my actions.I’ll draw you (as I have to draw myself) back to Hebrews 12 where the author tells us that we can endure all hardship as discipline. Verse 11 goes on, “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”
If I back away from what God’s called me to do in big or small ways because I conclude pain=mistake, I miss something powerful God wanted to do, lessons He wanted me to learn, victory He wanted me to express.
As my wife and I were foster parents (who were also looking to adopt), we knew great pain and had to wrestle through whether we were doing the right thing for us, our son Noah, and even these kids coming into our home. It seemed overwhelming dealing with all of it, and we had plenty of well-meaning people tell us that we needed to quit because we cared too deeply.
If we had concluded our pain meant we were on the wrong track and let go, we would not have the two beautiful children we adopted. We had the conviction that God had shown us we were to do this. Some days were horrible and some contained so much joy that we wanted to explode.
We touched lives and continue to touch our little ones’ lives. We even plan on doing it again at some point. This is not a commercial for foster-parenting (although if you pray and feel it’s an option for you, please find out more information. Good, loving foster parents are very much needed). This is one example out of hundreds or thousands—ministries, relationships, marriages, jobs—anything could apply.
What has God asked of you? What are your dreams? You know, it’s that thing in the core of your being that won’t go away, won’t let you go.
Don’t begin, hit a wall, and think it’s too hard or painful to continue.
Don’t try to fix a mistake that isn’t a mistake at all. It’s simply God leading you to trust His greatness in the face of your insufficiency. His grace is enabling you. His Spirit is within you and upon you. His power is being perfected in our weakness.
If you feel convicted as you read this and know you tried to fix something that was God, simply repent and turn it back to Him. If you’re in the struggle right now and wanting to give up, hold tenaciously to His unchanging hand.
My thoughts and feeling when left un-submitted and un-surrendered to Him become a hindrance and I want to put my hand into fixing it or run away completely.
ShareThis
