The worst storms have the potential to prepare the ground for the best fruit.
Most times my problem is that I resist the storm and I don’t allow it to accomplish all that God intended. To fully mature in God necessitates that we must fully mature in our understanding of God’s goodness, especially when things seem the grimmest. (see James 1:2-4)
Moving out of the absolute hardest season of my life, where God turned my spiritual life inside out, it would of been easy to “curse God and die” as Job’s wife suggested to Job. But I found myself at my lowest point holding my tongue, not for fear of talking to God about it, but for fear of yelling “Uncle” when the hurt that I was enduring was a kin to telling the doctor stop pulling out the bullet or not to stop setting my broken bone. We love to pray the prayer “Thy will be done”, but when we pray this we are signing away our willingness to be our own Lord. We write off the consent form that says I will allow God to do what it takes to make me like Him. It’s a pretty big deal, yeah I know.
The depth of the change and the difficulty of the transition I went through tells me that this was something He had been wanting to do for a long time. I guess I had never been strong enough to handle it until now. In earlier years I might of cursed God and the devil and went about my merry way. But I know now more assuredly the love and nature of my Father in heaven and that at times He must use pain as an instrument of His surgical procedure.
God is good and although the last month has been incredibly difficult the truths that I now have deeply rooted in my reality are way worth it. So deep that it effects my every waking moment, causing a totally different way of being with God and my being in the world.
So may you know that when the storm comes God can use it for your good. May you humble yourself, resist the devil, and allow God to work. May the storm tear down your idols and water your vineyard. He is surely good, no matter how dark the days.
Collision of Kingdoms 