Being Content Growth

Bring The Rain

(I’ve been doing a little mini-series on trials. Sometimes these mini-series are unplanned and just happen because of what God has placed on my heart. Hopefully for those who are going through trials, you’ve found them encouraging. For those who aren’t, I hope they’ve been encouraging to you as well. :))

I’ve lived in Southern California for over 25 years now and I still marvel at the weather.  It’s a wonderful gift that we can wait for sunshine to go grocery shopping, because if it’s inclement today in all likelihood it won’t be tomorrow. Recently, however, we’ve had a spate of storms. These storms weren’t just “big for Southern California” – they unleashed a bucket load of rain that would impress a mid-westerner. And while I enjoy an occasional downpour as much as the next person, sometime around the 6th day straight of rain, I was over it. Just like the refrain in the child’s lullaby, I was wishing for the rain, rain to go away (and was really hoping it didn’t come back another day.)

Sometimes, however, the rain lasts much longer than we think we can endure. This is true of the drops that fall from the sky and the storms that we face in life. However, in their song “Bring the Rain,” MercyMe gives us a different perspective to consider when our lives are caught in a downpour. They sing:

Bring me joy, bring me peace
Bring the chance to be free
Bring me anything that brings You glory
And I know there’ll be days
When this life brings me pain
But if that’s what it takes to praise You
Jesus, bring the rain

Did you catch that? Instead of asking God to take away the rain, they ask Him to bring it – if it brings Him glory. I know people who pray to avoid painful situations, and those that pray to have pain removed, but to tell God in advance that you are o.k. with the heartache if that through it, His goodness is shown takes a faith and a confidence that is rarely seen.

As I’ve written previously, I don’t think we need to go looking for pain. However, I do think we need to offer everything to God, even our comfort and contentedness if through it, His goodness can be put on display.

May our hearts increasingly be not only willing to endure what life brings, but may we offer up whatever God needs to use even if it means some rain.

 

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Growth

Trusting with Trials

Most of us like to be considered trustworthy. We want people to think that we are worthy of their secrets, of their respect, and their confidence. Whether or not most people are actually trustworthy is a different story, but generally speaking, it’s a quality we all desire.

However, there is one instance where we may be inclined to wish we weren’t trust quite so much. Usually this comes when we are experiencing a trial and we can’t ascertain its purpose. As Christians, we know that God is using the situation, and is using us to accomplish His good (See Romans 8:28), but depending on the magnitude of the trial that we are enduring, we may wish that God didn’t entrust us with so great a task as to represent Him well in the midst of it.

And while this may be our inclination, it’s important to remember that God is trusting us. He’s given us an opportunity to be used for His purpose and while that may be overwhelming at times, it is also a privilege. Hopefully, we want to be the kind of people who suffer well for Christ, and if God has deemed us able to do that, then we should be grateful – maybe not necessarily for the situation – but for the fact that He has counted us worthy to endure what His Son endured (although for most of us, probably to a significantly lesser degree), and to in the midst of hard situations, demonstrate how good He is.

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