His Reasons!

Person: I don’t even know why it has to be like this.

Me: It’s for a reason.

Person: Yeah, what reason?

I have a bad habit of replaying my conversations with people. I think through them, analyze thoughts and motives, and realize what could have been said (or added) instead. I do it all the time, and these lines from a conversation these past two weeks are no exception.

I know now how I could have answered that question. I didn’t then. I’m not an “on-the-spot” answer-giver. I like to think through my answers (especially long ones), and sometimes by the time I do that people are onto something else.  I didn’t know what to say in answer to “what reason?”, and they didn’t expect me to. It was more of a rhetorical question.

As I was thinking about how to write this week’s posts, I came across some of my quotes that I have collected over the past couple years from people, blogs, sermons, or anywhere I find them. Many of them speak on this subject, and I will do my best to incorporate them here.

Why are things the way they are? In your home, at work, in society. There are many reasons perhaps, but this one I know: it is for our growth and strengthening of character.  Each circumstance and situation God places in our lives is for our maturing of character. Because His thoughts are not our thoughts, we may not immediately see His plans, but often times later in life we can look back and view the whole story as one who has been carried through it. Our growth is what God desires of us, and like precious metals in the fire, we cannot be purged of impurities until we have passed through the fire. We don’t often understand reasons for each trial, but we can remember the past and see that God did carry us. He never forsook His children, and when they needed Him most He was already there. “The blow at the outward man may be the greatest blessing to the inner man”: the maturing of our character.  God’s reasons always have a purpose; He does not call us to futility.

Sometimes God calls us to a seemingly impossible task. A task we could not accomplish in our own strength. That is when we realize that we need Him most, because “the task ahead of us is never as great as the Power behind us”. It is through His strength, and only His strength that we accomplish His calling and purpose. His power enables us to live for Him, to complete His tasks, and to shine our light in a dark world in every situation. Sometimes we feel like giving up because it’s so hard. But “when one must be forsaken, let not that one be Christ”; give up yourself, rather than leaving the One who gives you true strength. With Christ, the only way to fail is to quit, so don’t give up, because what God calls us to do, He will give the strength to accomplish. “When we are weakest, He is strongest—and when we step far out of our comfort zones, we step right into the comfort of Christ.” Whatever impossible obstacle God places in our journey, He will also provide a way over it—your good work will be rewarded either here or when you see Jesus face to face. One of God’s reason for each and every situation we face is to show His power—not ours—in our helplessness.

The wise will use the events God gives us as instruments in our life, to advance His character in our lives. Taking advantage of each difficulty and seeing how we can grow from it will mold us constantly to His image. God doesn’t give us impossible tasks, trials, or temptations. In each one, He has provided a way of escape, promised His faithful care, and given us Christ’s strength. And when we come to the end of our weakness, and see that we can do nothing, then we will more fully understand that “in our weakness, He is strong.” “God doesn’t call the qualified: He qualifies the called.” He knows we aren’t perfect, but through His strength He can accomplish anything in us and we can still fulfill His will. His good work in an imperfect people will be perfectly completed when He comes for us. Don’t lose hope when everything seems to stand still, when it seems that God is not listening, when it seems like you’re going backwards and not forward—don’t let those waves wash away your hope. My dad said this to me not that long ago: “Dark clouds aren’t always bad. Sometimes they bring a little rain which is good for growth. It’s when it’s thundering and lightening that it can cause the damage. But usually there is always sunshine after a storm. …always hope for that: the sunshine.”  There is a reason. We cannot often see it, but when we pass through (yes, through; even if we are stuck in it for the present), we will see Christ waiting on the other side where He was all along, guiding us, sustaining us, and carrying us when we needed Him most.

His reasons? To show His strength. To further His purposes. To increase our likeness to Him. To demonstrate His power. To testify of His glory. To give us a hope and a future. It is all His, and no glory belongs to us.

Jude 1:24-25

To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power, and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. 

In Christ,

Kaleigh