Crushing: God Turns Pressure into PowerSample

Miserable Meditations 

We waste valuable time and energy any time we think we know better than God – even when we can’t make sense of the circumstances in which we feel buried. Especially when we cannot see anything except darkness and can only smell the stench of decay. During such moments, we must trust that something is growing. Something is being birthed in the invisible realities we likely cannot see.

An unplanted seed is nothing more than constrained potential. We love the thought of being gifted and having the ability to do something great, but we don’t smile so brightly when we are placed in the refining processes of life. But aren’t these two intimately connected? How can we have one without the other? We cannot rightfully ask the Master Husbandman to skip out on the development of our lives simply because we are uncomfortable with being alone in dark places. 

The presence of pain in your life isn’t a prophecy of your destruction. Rather, your troubles are a sign that He is preparing you for your arrival at a bright and cheerful ascent. You are in the process of sprouting new life. Breaking through the filthy soil of where you were placed in life, you sprout and rise to continue seeing another world of possibilities. But I understand the difficulty in simply trusting Him. When we’re burdened by distresses and overwhelmed by the urgent demands of life, we forget that our Vinedresser truly has our best interests at heart.