Revelation 3:18 (NKJV) 18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.
Do we have eyes that see?
What do we see?
Do we see selectively?
Do we choose not to see some things because they make us uncomfortable, because we don’t understand them, because they disturb us or because they might scare us?
We have that choice. We can choose to see all that God wants us to see, or we can block some things out and choose not to see them.
The thing we need to remember, though, is that there are some things that God wants us to see even if we might not like them, or even if they might make us a bit uncomfortable.
Seeing these things might bother us, but it helps us to learn and to grow. It allows God to stretch us as believers.
This can make us uncomfortable at times. It might even cause us to shrink back.
But we can never grow and move forward if we stay locked inside of the same comfortable box day after day, year after year.
If we’re going to mature as believers, we need to push beyond our boundaries of comfort.
Trials and times of difficulty will cause us to move outside of our comfort zones and to make changes necessary for us to mature as believers.
Sometimes the trials we face come by our own hand, because of choices we make. Sometimes they happen because of choices others have made. The effects of their choices trickle down to us
Sometimes, though, trials come solely to allow God to stretch and shape us. Yes, some of them even come by His hand.
Regardless, no matter how they come, we need to embrace them and let God do His works through them, even if we despise the trial itself.
We need to let God open our spiritual eyes and show us what’s behind the things we’re seeing, and then let Him show us how He wants us to handle it.
Hiding ourselves from them won’t spare us from the trial. It will just prevent us from gaining understanding, from learning and from growing.
It’s important that we embrace God in the midst of our trials and times when we don’t understand what we’re seeing.
And when we do see what’s happening, we can’t wallow in it, drowning in frustration, anger or even hatred.
It’s not always easy, but we need to keep our focus on God and His sovereignty. We need to let Him teach us, shape us and mold us through the trials that we face.
Once we do this, we will begin to get understanding, and the way we handle trials and the scary stuff will change drastically, a little at a time.
Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie
Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808
401-315-0902
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