What is God doing in your life today?
No, I don’t mean getting you a parking space or the sunshine or a good cup of coffee.
What is God doing in your life, today?
We Christians tend to attribute to God’s direct intervention an amazing number of things (as long as we like them), though we don’t seem to be so quick to attribute to Him those things we don’t like. We seem to think that if we’re happy, God is working in our life, and if we aren’t happy, well, God is somehow absent.
Not necessarily.
The scripture does make it quite clear that God is active in our lives. It even tells us what he is doing (at least in general terms, since it applies to every one of us at all times it is difficult for the scripture to be specific!). For example:
**He causes all things to work together for good to those who love God (Romans 8:28, and by the way, John defines “loving God” as obeying him in 1 John 5:3).
**He disciplines (trains) those he loves to produce a harvest of righteousness and peace (Hebrews 12:7-11)
**He rebuilds us as persons from the inside out (Galatians 5:22-23)
If we belong to him, he is doing these things in us right now! But do we recognize them? Do we notice? Do understand?
Perhaps God is at work when we don’t get the parking space and we feel like whole day is thrown off because we’re late for an appointment. By allowing us to deal with that stress he is forcing us to exercise patience and focus on what is important in life rather than our own agendas.
Maybe God is at work when he doesn’t physically heal us, letting us be reminded of the cost of sin and forcing us to remember that his grace is enough for us—even in the face of extreme hardships.
Could it be God’s hand that guides us to that rude and obnoxious person who gives us the chance to practice loving the unlovely the way God has loved us?
Is it possible that, when we look for how God is working in our lives, we should look for the things that are not going “well” for us, the things that irritate and hurt us? Is it possible that, far from being invested in our happiness God is “ok” with us being hurt (not harmed) by life, so that we will learn and grow and change and become more what he created us to be?
And if that is possible, then is it possible that the very things we are asking God to remove from us are the things we should be the most grateful for because they are making us stronger and more like Jesus himself?
It’s possible.
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