Though we search and seek for God, His ways are past searching out. I love nothing more than to be led by God’s Spirit, whether that’s to speak to someone about Jesus, pray for someone, share something that He has laid on my heart or bless someone materially, however yesterday, God taught me about another way He leads His children.
I had half an hour to spare before I jumped into the shower to get ready for work, so I took a walk. I wasn’t led to take my normal route by the Pier but to take a route adjacent to a School that backed onto the woods near where I live.
I reasoned that if God was asking me to take a different route, He had something in mind that He wanted me to do. Would I bump into someone that needed to hear how much God loved them? Was there someone that needed my encouragement or help?
While I walked wondering, the Scripture, ‘Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil’ (Matt 4:1), flashed across my mind and an emphasis settled on ‘Jesus being led into the wilderness by the Spirit’.
It dawned on me it was God’s prerogative and idea for Jesus to be tempted! The same Spirit that led Jesus to save, touch, heal, set free and deliver; led Jesus into a time of testing and trial.
Freedom comes for us, when we realise that the difficulties that we are experiencing have been orchestrated by God to release His life within us. God is working out His purposes in us through the testing and trials He takes us through.
Now back to my walk… I love the colours of Autumn and the sound of the crisp leaves being crushed under foot but guess what happened to me yesterday? I hit my right toe against a stone, on a spot where it already hurts (I’ve got a dodgy right toe – believing for God to complete His healing!), then I slipped! I’m thanking God I didn’t fall flat on my bum, then a few minutes after I had regained my balance, I slid down a muddy bit of the trail I was walking along!
God was speaking to me and I grasped clearly what He was saying – “sometimes I will lead you into difficult places, into trials and testing and it’s all still part of my plan”.
A trouble-free life devoid of difficulty is a caricatured, false image of the life that we have been called to as God’s children.
Remember Paul, remember the early Apostles? Hebrews 11: 37 (AMPC) says,
‘They were stoned to death; they were lured with tempting offers [to renounce their faith]; they were sawn asunder; they were slaughtered by the sword [while they were alive]; they had to go about wrapped in the skins of sheep and goats, utterly destitute, oppressed, cruelly treated’…
Paul said about his experience as a follower of Jesus:
“Are they ministers of Christ? – I speak as a fool – I am more: in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep…”, 2 Cor 11: 23 (b) – 25 (NKJV)
These are only a few of the things that he experienced, as he goes on to reel off a long list of other tragedies, trials and difficulties he experienced.
When we realise that God (not the enemy) is in control of our lives when we live submitted to Him, we are able to rest in Him, knowing that everything; even the difficult circumstances of our lives are fully under His control.
What difficult circumstances are you facing today? Are you going through a trial, time of testing or hardship? Rest assured that as long as you are walking in His will, He is in control and He has a plan. Don’t waste your energy or breath screaming at the devil; when God is the one at work in you. Praise Him through your trials, submit to His dealings! Recognise that He is at work, growing you, bringing out the gold in you. He knows what He is doing… let Him have His way.
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