The Part Of God’s Will No One WantsSample

Shine

God will undoubtedly allow more than we can handle. Great pressure results in great reliance. Settle it and rely on Him. The “I can’t do this” sweat of life is where we learn to trust Him most deeply. “Trials and troubles are dumbbells and treadmills for the soul,” writes Robert Morgan. “They develop strength and stamina.”¹ God has used the pressures of miscarriage and cancer to draw me closer to Him. They both looked as “uncrossable” to me as the Red Sea must have looked to Moses. But such challenges cause us to rely on God more deeply than we might otherwise. Sadly, if we could handle these things without Him, many of us would try.

When was the last time you prayed for the strength to take a single step? Today, someone in a hospital or a physical therapy clinic somewhere is asking God for that much strength. That single step to them looks impossible. It is more than they can bear. They need their God just to shuffle a few feet forward—and when they do, the resulting celebration will be even louder than for someone else’s marathon!

Those parts of His will that we do not want, cause the volume of our faith to get turned up. C. S. Lewis said that God “whispers to us in our pleasures ... but shouts to us in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”² Not only do we hear God more clearly, but our attentiveness to Him can also cause the ears of others to incline toward words of hope.

As my wife endured a miscarriage and the loss of her mom, she sought God like never before. You should see her Bible. Ink stained, pages curled, writing in every margin, cover torn. But the wear of her Bible also shows where the protection of her heart came from. Imagine a woman losing a child, caring for her cancer-ridden mother and then speaking at her mother’s funeral. It was more than she could bear. But she trusted God to bear it for her, and He did. She leaned into Him and not away, and once again He proved Himself faithful.

When God’s will is not what you wanted, you’ve received your chance to shine. So stay put and trust as you lean into Jesus. He will surely see you through.

Notes
1. A Robert J. Morgan, Red Sea Rules (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2001), p. 96.
2. C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain (New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2001).

 You can get Gregg Matte’s book by clicking on Finding God's Will.