When I became a Christian, my life went from great and thriving to what-the-heck-is- happening – and I’m putting it mildly. To put it exact, my life became tore up from the floor up! LOL! Definitely new and unchartered territory for me. But during my pre-Christian days, God wouldn’t leave me alone. He showed me so much grace and took me out of situations that proved it was him. He strategically put the right people in my path, which, looking back was really sweet of him.
The moment I said “I do” to God, my life turned upside down. Don’t let anyone tell you that your life is going to be awesome when you accept God as your lord and saviour and an active follower of Christ. I’m here to tell you, the opposite is going to happen! When God has a mandate on your life he will push all the right buttons to bring a little trouble into your life, but he’ll take care of you while he is doing it.
Now, the first reason I wrote this article was to talk to you about how God tests us. I know you’ve heard it many times before, but I’ll try not to sound too cliche.
I have questioned God many times, wrestled with God, cried; I’ve been depressed, I’ve moped and I’ve seen doors shut in my face. And I’ve been in situations where I’ve had no peace, and the only place I could find peace was in God. God will disarm you, he will twist your ego until there’s nothing left and make you lose bad parts of your personality. No more cockiness or high thinking of yourself. He will break you and humble you. I know what I’m talking about. It’s a dire and desperate place to be. Try as you might to wiggle your way out, but you can’t.
In your pain and frustration, you tell God you’re going to give up on him and then he lovingly tells you “Go ahead.” He knows you’ll be back, because you’ve learned as a Christian that there’s nowhere else to go. Everything outside of God, is a bad idea. A really bad idea. So you endure the test but my goodness, do you come out of it a different person! Phew! LOL You’re almost glad you went through the fire.
You become humble, because you know God can strip it all away from you if you step out of line. You fear God like no one else. You want to please him and turn away from sin. You see yourself differently, and you accept things about yourself you never have before. You walk differently and talk differently. And when you read his word, it actually speaks to you directly. It teaches you lessons and steps on your toes. Many of those lessons for me, came from the book of James.
I’ve learned to put my faith and trust in God completely and I obey him. And even though life is difficult, my perspective has changed.
Now, I’m not talking about months of battling with God and being tested, but years. God will never give his good ones an easy ride because he wants them to always need him and rely on him. And this is going to sound really weird, but you start to want the suffering just so you can get closer to God and need him and hear him and talk to him.
At this point in my life, I wouldn’t want to rely on anyone but God. Who better to rely on? He has become my life, my source of all things. I asked God for only one thing: To never leave me.