"No discipline seems pleasant at the time but painful. Later on, however, it produces harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it."(Hebrews 12:11)
As we know, life is full of trials that we face day in and day out. Some trials may be big, some are small. Many times these trials, these interruptions in our lives, are opportunities that God is providing to give us life lessons. When God interrupts your life, how do you respond? Do you get frustrated and get stuck in self-pity, asking why this is happening to you? Do you run the opposite direction when God calls you in a direction that you hadn’t planned? Or do you respond by accepting these trials as an opportunity God has given to you to see something that could glorify Him more?
Think of it this way: God is our Father; we are His children. Part of the process of a Father teaching a child is disciplining that child. For example, when his child doesn’t clean up his/her room as asked, that child is disciplined to show him/her the value of why he/she was asked to do it in the first place. The father disciplines his child because he loves his child. The same is true of our Heavenly Father. He disciplines those he loves in order to help us see the places He needs us to be. Disciplining us can result in us seeing the areas in our lives where we were once blind, but through His discipline we now can see. I know a lot of us don't understand God in this way; we end up getting stuck in the misery of the circumstances around us instead of looking at these circumstances as an opportunity to strengthen us, and bring us closer to Him.
Hebrews 12:5-11 describes how He disciplines those He loves and wants us to endure the hardships that we experience so that we can see the good that He is bringing into our lives. He is actually shaping our character and making us stronger for the challenges that we face. He wants us to sacrifice our lives, just as His son Jesus did when He took on the cross for us. By disciplining us, He is showing us how to glorify His name because of what His son has suffered for us to be free.
I encourage you to change your perspective on the trials that you are facing. You can do this by focusing all you can on God instead of on yourself. Everything that comes across your path is an opportunity that God has given you to learn and grow more like Him. He brought you to the trials that you are facing. He is a God of His word; He will bring you out of these trials as a stronger person. He is walking right alongside of you, soaking in all the pain that you are experiencing and is ready to catch you when you fall. He can carry you and be your strength when you can't seem to do it yourself. He will open your heart and fill it with more of His unconditional love. He will open up your eyes to see these interruptions, or trials, as His way of asking you to be on board with Him. That's right; God is choosing you to be a part of His amazing story!
Take some time to read through Hebrews 12, pray about the challenges that you have faced or will face, and ask God to guide you through trials and help see them in a different perspective. God is in control, and once you let Him lead and learn to trust in what He has planned, He will begin to help you experience all the beautiful things that He is creating in this journey. He is creating a journey that will bless others and enable them to come to Him; your story is a part of that! Always remember God loves you so much that He is willing to discipline you to teach you a lesson and draw you closer to Him.