Stumbling across many opinions
seems to be the basis of my day to day interactions. These non-requested
emotional statements seem to impact my perception. I find it interesting the
different things I come across. How often I do not think twice about the opportunities
that are presented in front of me to grow or wonder if God is trying to talk to
me in some way. Kelly Needham had an excellent quote from a self-made devotion
in her blog that said:
“God is all around us, trying to speak to us. But so often, we rarely hear
because we are too caught up in our day‐to‐day activities.
We aren't looking for Him and listening to Him. But when we begin looking for Him and keeping our eye out for Him, He shows up all over the place”.
I have been guilty of not
looking for God in my daily activities. I have been more sensitive to the
opinions of others than I have been to the Holy Spirit. I have been failing to
realize that these opinions of others, which seem so valid, do not have an
eternal perspective. So why value their judgments which are based on emotions?
Too often I have encountered the “I feel like” or the “I don’t think”. So I
decided to take a look into my heart. Why do I value these opinions so much anyway?
These past few weeks, God has
started to show me the importance of introspection. I found that I have always
liked things crystal clear in my life. I am the queen of orderly plans, which
God loves to shake up. I feel the most secure in my plans when others
compliment on how awesome and logical they sound. I hold tight to these opinions
and confirmations because they bring a feeling of security. In reality, they
are all just worthless because none of them are from God. In result, I become
guilty of trusting in my plans more than God.
I am very grateful for God’s
promise that He will complete the work in us until the day Christ returns (Phil
1:6). My perspective very seldom is eternal; therefore these plans deserve to
be shaken. It is the Holy Spirit’s great work of removing things that cloud my
view of Jesus. My plans definitely can serve the “clouding” purpose. Through
the suffering and not getting my way, I have found that God knows best. Even when
I cannot see “how” things will turn out or understand “why” I am going through something.
Romans 5 explains the process that suffering brings us through with excellence:
Therefore, since we
have been justified by faith, we[a] have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained
access by faith[b] into this grace in which we
stand, and we[c] rejoice[d] in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not
only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces
endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and
character produces hope, 5 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.
Through
these verses it is awesome to see the work that God does in us through
suffering. I have always thought of suffering strictly something physical. I
have no idea why, but through an inductive bible study God really showed me
that there is more to suffering. Suffering is not getting what you would untimely
desire in that moment. If you value your job and you feel as though you need it
to survive, and then you are fired, then that is suffering. When I looked at
suffering in this manner, I found that many things in my life fall under this
category. I have valued my sport, track and field, highly in the past. My
biggest desire has been to run a 2:12 or faster in the 800 meter dash. I have
always felt like I am in the physical shape to do so, however year after year
it has not come to pass.
In
these times of disappointment and not obtaining what I want, I have come to see
how valueless such a desire is. I have wanted so much to run this time to give
myself worth, but my worth should come from God’s word. It took me a long time
to realize this and I am still striving to fully embrace my identity in Christ.
In our suffering, like my example
given above, we either have the option to continue to pursue Christ or to give
up. Sometimes suffering is more difficult. In my life, the hardest time of my
life was when I lost my 11 year old brother a few years ago. I found him in the
closet. I was devastated, hurt, and I was so shocked I didn't cry for days. I didn't know how to because the pain was so severe. I had a choice to follow God
or to turn my back away from Him. I chose Christ. This is the endurance Paul is
talking about in Romans 5:3. Through the choice of choosing to continue to
follow after Christ, we see how valuable Christ is. We see how he is the only
thing that matters. This is the change in our character. Our ultimate desire
becomes to have more of Christ and we hope
(which in this case means that we desire it more than anything else) of the
Glory of God.
I can honestly say that sufferings are just a
reminder that this is not my home. My hope is to be with God in His glory for eternity. To know that my hope will not put me to shame is an awesome promise! Therefore, my plans, my situations, and my losses, I choose to submit them all to
God and trust in Him. Instead of constantly consuming the opinions of others, which lack eternal perspective and the unwavering love of God.
