The Purpose Of Challenges & Difficulties

Everything in life has a purpose even if you do not know what the purpose of what you are going through is.

Experiences that are unpleasant, challenges and difficulties have a reason, a purpose.

We need to have the right perspective about life and its issues, even difficulties and challenges.

The purpose of challenges is to glorify God in your situation and to benefit you.

Yes, God wants to be glorified through your trials and difficulties and He wants them to turn out for your good.

Your trials, challenges, and difficulties turning out for your good simply means they end up benefitting you.

God is a God of purpose.

Since He is a God of purpose, everything He permits or allows to happen has a purpose to it.

God's purpose is His will.

He is intentional about all He does and permits, this includes your life.

You are on this earth by God's will and design and your life's journey and path has a purpose.

This means your challenges, difficulties and trials have a purpose to it whether it was ordained by God or it was caused by the enemy.

God's will or purpose doesn't always play out automatically.

We have a role to play in understanding God's will and purpose for us on this earth.

It is not everything that happens in this world that is God's will and purpose but God can use anything and all things, including our mistakes, poor choices and the work of the enemy in our lives to glorify Himself and benefit us.

He is the God who can bring a message out of our mess, testimonies out of our difficulties, triumph out of our setbacks,  miracles out of our mistakes and the champion in us out of our challenges.

He makes things work out for our good and for His glory.

But we have to pray.

We have to believe.

We have to hunger for His will and plan.

We have to search, even the scriptures to gain understanding.

These are our responsibilities.

The Spirit of God is also available to those who ask, and stay sensitive to Him to know the thoughts, mind and heart of God concerning the sometimes unpleasant things we go through in life.

Every difficulty qualifies you to receive a miracle from God through Jesus Christ.

Every challenge puts you in line for miracle solutions through Jesus Christ.

Many people want miracles but very few understand that miracles are God's solution to the challenges that are beyond us.

Miracles are God's intervention in human affairs to fix a situation that is beyond the human.

Miracles glorify God.

Challenges and difficulties precede the miraculous!

Begin to see your challenges and difficulties as qualifying you to be next for a miracle!

 

the Stones & the Kingdom

 The kingdom of God is likened to a stone, just as Jesus is the rejected stone which became the chief cornerstone. Believers are living stones, we are a part of God's spiritual building.

Stones are used for building, for artwork, as a part of hunting tools and as weapons of warfare.

 It was a stone David used to kill Goliath! 

Stones are not as useless as many of us might think.

It's interesting Jesus and the saints are likened to stones.

It's also amazing Jesus said stones would burst out and give Him worship/praise if the Jews didn't.

Why stones?

Some of us live in parts of the world where it is not uncommon to find stones on our path and grounds everyday.

Due to this, stones are seen as common and often taken for granted.

In God's kingdom, that which is seen as common, taken for granted or irrelevant can be very valuable.

It is interesting the Lord of all creation is likened to a stone, a rejected stone.

Jesus is the rejected stone that became the chief head of the corner.

This example is one of stones being used for buildings,  in building constructions.

What this means is that the rejected stone became the most important stone for the construction work, 

A rejected stone is the least useful stone for the purpose it was chosen for.

It is a stone that was chosen, tried and workmen or building experts concluded it doesn't qualify so it was discarded.

Man's reject is God's elect.

God is a God of the underdog.

God gives the underdog a chance.

He does this in His wisdom and mercy.

Within God's kingdom we find many individuals who were underdogs who God gave a chance, they emerged heroes of faith.

This is the spiritual mystery of stones.

Stones are the underdogs of creation many do not often see the value of.

They are often tossed away, walked on and at best played or toyed with by toddlers who pick them up from the floor not knowing any better.

It takes an artistic eye to see what can be done with a stone.

Great sculptors like Leonardo Da Vinci have sculpted beautiful images out of stone and marbles many didn't see a use for.

David the shepherd boy was a resourceful teenager who knew what to do with stones.

The stones many walked past by the brookside were potent, tried and useful weapons in the hands of the young shepherd.

With one out of the five stones he picked from the ground he cracked the skull of Goliath, liberating the whole nation from the intimidation of the giant who had kept them in fear for forty days.

Stones are easily taken for granted, left on the floor, trampled upon, without discernable use.

Some heroes of faith can identify with that, that is how they were seen and treated by man but God had other plans

But the same stones we see daily and take for granted have lots of potential.

They can be cleaned, polished and used as part of artworks. 

The same stone that was on the ground and not put to good use today can suddenly become an object of value or part of a treasure!

When cleaned and polished up their value is appreciated, their beauty is seen, and their usefulness discerned.

There's nothing God has made and which exists today that doesn't have any usefulness.

The question is, can you discern the purpose or usefulness of what you have around you?

Can you see or recognize what others cant?

The same builders who rejected the stone that became the chief head of the corner were the ones who went back to fetch the rejected stone they discarded after discovering its usefulness, after seeing where it fits, after discovering its value and where it should go in the building construction. It turned out the most useful stone, in the most important position!

Jesus was rejected by His own, spat on, left to die, beaten and bruised yet He forgave defied death and the grave, rose like a phoenix and sits in the most exalted position!

He knows what underdogs feel and He has experienced their story.

When we are translated into the kingdom of God, our Creator who knows us and sees the usefulness in us that man often misses takes us and places us where we fit, where our value is noticed and our glory manifests.

The kingdom of God is the place to be!

God has a way of taking the beggar from the dunghill and setting him up among princes.

That boy, girl, man or woman you are taking for granted today because of their present state just might be diamonds in the mud, precious stones who will shine with a bit of encouragement, direction, help and guidance.

They are precious stones in the hand of God!