Dear Friends,
Each week I meet with members of U-Turn for Christ, an addiction ministry our church
hosts each week. We were studying the subject of adversity, and I asked the men
this question: “How has adversity shaped your life?”
One
by one they each began revealing the pain and problems they had experienced as
they dealt with their drug or alcohol addiction. They all shared different
stories, but they all agreed on one thing: They were glad for the adversity
they experienced as they battled with their addiction.
Why
would they say that? Because it was adversity that led them into a recovery ministry
that taught them about God. Despite their painful pasts, they were all grateful
for their pasts for they could discern how that adversity had now brought them
face to face with Jesus.
It
has been said that “What we call adversity, God calls opportunity.” God
often uses adversity to break the chains of something that needs changing in
our lives.
Our
brother James reminds us that we are to “Consider it pure joy, my brothers,
whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of
your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you
may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:2-4).
These
brothers in their new-found faith could now see how God had used their painful
pasts to produce a new and a promising future. They were now able to fathom
God’s promise in Romans 8:28 that “In everything, God works together for good
to those who love God and are called according to his purpose.”
In a recent e-mail devotional I
receive from pastor and teacher Allister Begg, I was struck by his words on
this subject. He writes, “Rest assured, if you are a child of God, you
will be no stranger to the rod. Sooner or later every bar of gold must pass
through the fire. Fear not, but rather rejoice that such fruitful times are in
store for you, for in them you will be weaned from earth and made meet for
heaven; you will be delivered from clinging to the present and made to long for
those eternal things that are so soon to be revealed to you. When you feel that
as regards the present you do serve God for nothing, you will then rejoice in
the infinite reward of the future.”
Let
us be reminded that while “God may have placed you in the forge, or on the
anvil; He is using your trials to shape you for higher (and greater) things”
Yours
in faith and friendship,
Tom
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