So many times I and other Christians assume that what is happening in our lives and in our world is about us. We are like my baby boy Asher who believes the world revolves around him and should be structured to his benefit and liking. We Christians think that way a lot. You can hear it in our prayers, our attitudes toward difficulties, and in the way we complain. We take Romans 8:28 to always mean that God is going to make something bad good for us. Why? Because we think it's all about us.
The first line of Rick Warren's book "The Purpose Driven Life" he writes, "It's not about you." Oswald Chambers explains, "If you are going to be used by God, He will take you through a multitude of experiences that are not meant for you at all; they are meant to make you useful in His hands, and to enable you to understand what transpires in other souls so that you will never be surprised at what you come across" (My Utmost for His Highest: November 5).
God is the potter; we are the clay. Jeremiah 18:6 “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.
The question is, what kind of clay are we? Are we dry and uneasily transformed? Are we hard and break easy under stress? Are we too soft and fall apart easily? Or are we weak enough to be changed and strong enough to take form?
1 comment:
That is very helpful to know that some things aren't meant for us at all. I may be saying the same thing but can the question become "How can this experience help others?," instead of "How am I to grow?" It seems like it could be both. Sometimes more from one question than the other.
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