I was listening to one of Charles Stanley’s messages over the weekend. About 15 minutes into the message, he said something that really stuck with me.
“Nothing that you go through is purposeless…”
This statement was perhaps what I needed to hear and perhaps the reason God allowed me to zoom into that specific part of the message.
As I thought about what the last year has been like…Or even the last decade, it’s easy for me to say “God why did I have to go through that?” or “Why am I going through this?”
With God’s grace, I’ve come to see every event that has happened to date as an event that has purpose.
I’m not saying God made it happen. But rather that, despite my poor decision making or whatever it was, God’s grace was set up so that I could learn something from every experience I had.
You see, purpose builds character. And since nothing that we go through is without purpose…I have to believe that every event in my life is meant to build character.
Someone once said that if all you’ve overcome is a common cold… then you’ve got a lot to learn. But when you’ve had to fight cancer, when you have had to deal with a spouse walking out on you, when you’ve had to deal with thoughts of depression and suicide, when you’ve watched your wealth deplete to zero… These are opportunities for character building.
Not everyone takes advantage of these opportunities. In fact, it’s so easy to complain when we go through experiences that can cripple us. But God wants us to always look at these experiences and say “Father what is it that you want me to get from this?”
Sometimes we go through so much in life, that it gets overwhelming. But we must trust that God is preparing us for something great. He is preparing us for a great testimony.
If we can see life through the lens of ‘purposefulness’, there is a chance that we can see what God is trying to do in us.
He is never trying to cripple us. But rather, He is building character in us for the glorious future that He has in store for us.
Tidbits from Heaven 