Perhaps there are issues rearing their heads in several areas of your life and you are feeling the stress within you intensify beyond measure.
Your cries to the Lord for deliverance out of your difficulties feel like they are not reaching the ears of God and you feel deeply discouraged.
Let me encourage you and help shift your perspective, allowing you insight into what possibly is taking place and therefore what the Lord has in mind for you as you weather this storm.
As believers in Christ, we are chosen to be His ambassadors here on earth in this lifetime. We are not promised a smooth and easy life just because we have given our lives to the Lord.
On the contrary, we are at times led to enter into tough seasons for our growth in Him in order to be true representatives of God to those around us.
Paul writes in 2 Corinthians a familiar passage for most of us:
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.”
2 Corinthians 4:7-11 NIV
I would like to pull our attention towards verses 10 and 11:
“We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.”
2 Corinthians 4:10-11
When Paul shares how we are given over to death he is referencing what he described earlier in this passage when sharing how we are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed and so on. He is letting us know how the hardships we go through are meant to put to death our sinful nature in order for Christ to live through us, in order for us to live lives led by His Spirit. God is longing for us to realize how us choosing over and over to live out of His Spirit within us, is us awakening to our true identity and nature in Him.
These trials, though challenging as they are, must take credit for us growing and learning who we are and to whom we belong. They are tools God uses to pull out of us our true Spirit led nature in Him.
The next time you encounter this pressing in on all sides know that the Lord is drawing out of you the person He knows you to be, living victoriously for Him and in Him.
Be encouraged and allow this growth process to take place. Allow the Lord to form in you who He has created you to be.