Life Is Happening for You, Not Just to You
Scripture: Romans 8:28 (NKJV)
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
I heard something today that really made me stop and think. A man was talking about the pain and suffering he experienced growing up. Rather than allowing those experiences to define him as a victim, he recognized how they had shaped the man he had become.
He learned to love deeply because he knew what it felt like to be hurt. He learned compassion because he understood suffering. He learned to cherish his wife because he had experienced what love should not look like.
And then he said something that really stood out to me:
“Your biggest problem is that you think you shouldn’t have problems.”
Think about that for a moment.
How many times have we questioned God because life wasn’t going the way we thought it should? How many times have we prayed for Him to remove a struggle rather than asking Him what He might be teaching us through it?
We want the strength without the struggle. We want the wisdom without the experience. We want the spiritual growth without the discomfort.
But that’s not always how God works.
James 1:2–4 reminds us that the testing of our faith produces patience and that patience has a work to complete in us so that we may become mature and complete.
Sometimes the very thing we’re asking God to remove is something He can use to grow us.
Now, that doesn’t mean God approves of the evil things people do to us. Abuse, betrayal, and suffering are not good simply because something good may eventually come from them. But it does mean that none of those things are beyond God’s ability to redeem.
Look at Joseph. His brothers betrayed him, sold him into slavery, and left him to suffer. Yet years later, Joseph told them:
“But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good…” — Genesis 50:20 (NKJV)
Joseph didn’t pretend that what happened to him was right. He simply recognized that God’s purpose was greater than what others had done to him.
And isn’t that the beauty of our relationship with Christ?
Our past doesn’t have to determine our future. Our wounds don’t have to become our identity. And our suffering doesn’t have to be wasted.
I look back at some of the hardest seasons of my own life, and while I wouldn’t necessarily want to walk through them again, I can see how God has used those experiences to change my heart, strengthen my faith, and give me compassion for people I might never have understood otherwise.
What if we stopped looking at every problem as something standing in our way and started asking how God might use it to shape us?
Maybe the question isn’t always, “Lord, why is this happening to me?”
Maybe sometimes it should be, “Lord, how can You use this to grow me, and how can I use what I’ve learned to help someone else?”
Because when we surrender our struggles to Christ, even our deepest pain can become part of a greater purpose.
So here’s my challenge to you today:
Are you allowing the problems in your life to make you bitter, or are you allowing God to use them to make you better?
Remember, God never promised us a life without trouble. But He did promise that we would never have to face it without Him.
Your suffering may be part of your story, but it doesn’t have to be the end of your story. Let God write what comes next.
— Rev. Carlos Figueroa
TheFreeBible.org
