If you’ve learned the character and ways of God through study of his word AND through your own life experiences with him…then you know that God approaches the storms of our lives…the dangerous and difficult seasons of our lives…in one of two ways:
1. He protects us by preventing the danger from touching us. In other words, He dissolves the storm before we get in it.
2. In His sovereignty, He allows the danger/the storm to bring about some greater good in us and in our world as he journeys with us THROUGH the danger/storm.
He’s always working things together for the good of those that love him but some times he does that in ways that are hard for us to understand. I want to speak specifically today about those seasons of life when…for reasons beyond our understanding…it seems as if God has chosen to allow the danger and difficulty in our lives and not prevent it. Some of us are living there now…and if your not…take notes…you will be at some point.
There are certain things we’ve simply accepted. We live our whole lives as if they are true. We pass them onto our kids, and they are reinforced by the people around us. We’re all told some of the same things, and so it must be true. And we end up spending our lives pouring hydrogen peroxide on our wounds and living with panic attacks because we swallowed a watermelon seed.
These kinds of things are funny to talk about….but what if we’ve accepted some things that have more significant implications for lives? What if we have gone along with some things that are not found in scripture? What if we’ve believed some things because we’ve been told them and it’s been reinforced by the culture around us…and what if going along with these things have dire ramifications in our life?
If you study the ministry of Jesus, here’s what you’ll find: He spent a significant amount of His time debunking the myths that people had been taught about God and about faith. You will often read where he says…You have heard it said…but I say unto you…He does this over and over again about several things. You’ve heard it said this way, but I’m going to tell you something different. I know you’ve been taught to look at it this way; but I’m going to give you a new way to look at it.”
