Now that you know what I was doing that caused her to scream those words. You may ask, Josh how rough were you with putting her socks on? I wasn't. I was trying to be as gentle and efficient as I could be so she wouldn't miss anytime playing in the snow with her sister. However, she was squirming and fighting me the whole time while I tried to put socks on her. The pain she thought she was in, was actually her own doing because she was resisting. I was not doing harm to her, but what I was doing for her was actually for her good and for her joy. In that moment I wasn't trying to take life from her, but add to her life because I wanted her to enjoy herself out in the snow, but in order to do that she had to be properly dressed.
In that whole process I was reminded that when it comes to our Heavenly Father, we are not much different than my child. There are things that God desires to do for us or that we ask him to do for us, but we squirm and resist him in the process. We may even accuse him of hurting us and utter the same words my child uttered to me: "Stop! You're hurting me".
Our Heavenly Father has no desire to hurt us, but only desires to do good to us because he alone knows what will give us true joy, true freedom and true life: "For I know the thoughts I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope"(Jeremiah 29:11). There is no guarantee that we will live a pain free life or that God won't walk us through hardships to accomplish his purpose in us, but what he asks of us is to trust him. Often, but not always, the pain we do experience is a result of resisting God's Will in our lives.
We want God to do good to us. We want his goodness. We want him to answer our prayer requests, but we do not want God to take us through the necessary process to experience His goodness and to see our prayers answered. God just doesn't want us to see his goodness in the end result or in our answered prayers, he wants us to see his goodness in the process he takes us through. Maybe you have been asking God to help you have a deeper faith in him, but you did not realize that job loss may be a part of the process of helping you have a deeper faith in him. However, without the job loss you would have missed out on seeing God do some amazing things to provide and care for you so that you would have a deeper faith in him, and you would have missed out on an opportunity that would require you to trust in him.
From my own experience, the process that God takes us through can become less painful the more we yield and submit to what God wants to do. We become less angry with the process and more trusting with God, the more we yield and accept the season he is leading us through. This does not mean things won't get scary or frustrating. This does not mean things won't be financially tough for us, that we won't experience any hardships, or that the process may be longer than we would like it to be, but one thing is for sure is that God will be with you and he desires to do good to you.
"And the Lord, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed."- Deuteronomy 31:8
"Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9
"For the LORD will not forsake his people; he will not abandon his heritage."- Psalm 94:14
Where in your life right now are you resisting God? What process are you fighting? What areas do you need to surrender to God and trust him with it?
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