“After you have suffered a little while……..

(1 Peter 5:10).

We love to read that God parted the Red Sea. But we don’t want to be backed into the same uncomfortable, painful corner that allowed the Israelites to witness God’s deliverance of their safety, their provision, their promise.  We love to read that Job’s life was far better in the second half of his years (Job 42:12) and that he gained far more materially and personally at the end of the story. But none of us want to lose our families, our marriages, our homes, or our lifestyles to gain the transformation and greater blessing God has for us.  What if you can’t get God’s blessing any other way?

In our own moments of tremendous pain and suffering, barriers and oppression, we must ask God to show us what we are to learn; how we are to grow through the situation. We must look at the dysfunction and lean into the reality that God wouldn’t have us go through it if he wasn’t already in it, allowing it to pass through His fingers, and if he wasn’t already with us every step of the way to make sure we get through it. We trust because God has provided so much proof that he will always see us through.

Trust That God Knows What is Best

Reading and praying upon the stories of Exodus 14 and Job 1 have produced great changes in my faith:

  1. When we seek him in prayer and fasting, God will direct us to the exact spot, stand, or season where we are to camp out and where we must stand firm in His word. But we must not assume that divinely orchestrated location will be free from adversity.  God PROMISES adversity when we follow Him. (John 15:21)
  2. Hardening of a heart is not always at the hands of the enemy. Sometimes God hardens the hearts of those around us to gain a greater result that we will not understand or even see coming. Remember Pharaoh wanted the Israelites out of his land, but then it was God (not Satan) who hardened Pharoah’s heart (Exodus 9:12) and caused a hateful rejuvenation to enslave the people as servants. Things got much much worse for the Israelites before God set them free. This was so that they could learn to trust in God alone. Something that took them over 40 years to learn.  How long have you been wandering in the wilderness trying to learn that lesson?
  3. God transformed a wet, muddy sea bottom into dry, hard ground for his chosen people to escape upon. Six hundred thousand Israelite men, their families, livestock, and wagons moved over a dry sea floor while water stood on either side of them. (Exodus 14: 19-31) Our limitations are irrelevant to a God who delights in defying the impossible and Our God has a flair for the dramatic.
  4. God creates guardrails to just how much influence Satan is allowed in our lives. When God spoke to Satan in the book of Job, he limited the enemy’s tactics, thus reinforcing for me that Satan never has free reign in my life, although he likes to pretend as if he does (Job 2:1-11). I always assumed He did and I often wrongly surrendered the power of my prayers and my actions to the evil one. That boundary means God allows only the precise amount through which will produce endurance, perseverance, and personal growth, to further his rescue mission and transform me to be more like him. I can’t speak for you, but I often require far more heat to transform my personality, my stubbornness, and my pride. I lean into the fact that what Satan aimed to destroy me with, God will use for my benefit and his glory and He already has in so many ways through my children and others in my life.

In Summary

God allowed the Israelites to think their end was near. God allowed the enemy to wreck Job in the most painful of ways. Pastor Tony Evans said it best, “God sometimes allows us to go through painful and even prolong suffering to give us a fresh vision of him that goes far beyond what we could have otherwise experienced.  And in the midst of those trials, He also delivers peace that makes no sense.”  So in the midst of your trials, pray for deliverance. But pray also that God would use your circumstance to allow you to see him, understand him, and worship him as never before. “

1 Peter 5:10

10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.