Today in fellowship we had a theme talk. The speaker mentioned that all the hardships and difficult people in your life is placed there by God to mould your character. Somehow I was engaged and reminded to think of these things as gifts from God to shape the better out of me, to train me to love in a way which is patient.
How very narrow minded of me to expect God to bless me in one way and not another.
Also, I recalled something John Piper said in a sermon on 1 Cor 13.
Being long-suffering means dying to the desire for an untroubled life.
Having no jealousy means dying to the desire for unshared affection.
Not boasting means dying to the desire to call attention to our successes.
Not acting unbecomingly means dying to the desire to express our freedom offensively.
Not seeking our own way means dying to the dominance of our own preferences.
Not being easily provoked means dying to the need for no frustrations.
Not taking account of wrongs means dying to the desire for revenge.
Bearing all things and enduring all things means dying to the desire to run away from the pain of obedience.
I realised there is a struggle to die to all these.
Here's another quote from John Piper
"If you live gladly to make others glad in God, your life will be hard, your risks will be high, and your joy will be full. ”
Subconsciously, I expected being a Christian to be less tedious but if such a expectation is a standard, I could never with a possibility of conceiving a "joy-full" life in any instant of my lifetime.
What if my greatest disappointments or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy ?
What if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are your mercies in disguise ?
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