Beauty In The Trials
You might be wondering, “Well how do all the
trials I am facing prepare me for my purpose tomorrow?” As a believer in
Christ, each of us has a special set or group of gifts to which we have been
blessed with through Christ. Every human being is born with a special set of
unique characteristics and gifts that he can use to benefit humanity. In
Ephesians 4, we read of how each believer in Christ has been granted grace by
being given a gift or gifts in the Holy Spirit to benefit the body of Christ.
Every believer in Christ has been endowed with these special gifts so that he
can build up the body of Christ through works of service to minister to the
needs of the body of Christ and to lost, broken humanity. This is why Jesus
told us what the greatest commandment was in Matthew 22:37-39, “’Love The Lord Your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and
greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as
yourself.’” I remember, I used to read this passage nonchalantly and did
not realize what it meant. I did not see how it applied to purpose.
What I have realized in my journey of purpose
is that God has allowed me to pass through a journey filled with many trials,
yet He has not allowed me to go through it helpless. As I mentioned earlier,
God has given each of us gifts. Now, why in the world would God give us gifts
and abilities if he did not provide us opportunities to exercise those gifts
and develop our spiritual muscles? God wants his children to first love God
with all of their hearts, but then he does not want them to stop there. God
wants us to put our love into action by using our gifts and abilities to
benefit the body of Christ and also the lost, broken, and dying world. God
calls us as His children to express our love for Him and others by ministering
to and meeting the needs of the people we come into contact with.
God allowed me to go through my journey of
purpose so that I would first learn to completely trust in Him to find my purpose.
He also wanted to teach me that in my life, He wants me to take the hurts,
issues of anger, unforgiveness, bitterness, and sorrow and be freed of them
through forgiveness. Only once I was able to truly walk in freedom of the
issues of the past hurts or failures was I able to begin to use God’s gifts for
my life to benefit others. I also learned through my trials how to be patient,
how to endure much suffering, how to choose joy in the suffering, and thus I
gained a much greater appreciation for the life God has blessed me with. Now,
eight years later, after going through all the fire, I can walk into the
purpose God has for me.
I have had to learn that daily I must directly
face the issues I struggle with. I have had to express to those people who have
hurt me, how their pain has made me feel pain. Through expressing myself in
this way and talking through the hurts and offenses I have been able to go to
Father God and pray to forgive the individuals who have hurt me and truly
release them. I have realized that through expressing the issues of pain with
the individuals or with someone else, and sometimes through simply writing
these hurts down on paper, I have been able to truly pray to the Father and
forgive and release them in my heart. Thus I can truly fulfill God’s greatest
ommandment by loving Him and loving others by using the gifts God has blessed
me with by ministering to the needs of others. Thus, I have found my true
purpose and daily, though not always perfectly, I have learned to walk in my purpose.
Maybe for you, you might be going through or
have gone through similar physical or
emotional problems or series of events
in your life and you do not know how to make sense of all the trials you are
facing or have had to face. Nothing makes sense to you, and you do not feel
like forgiving anyone right now, especially after that certain individual or
those individuals did that terrible thing to you, and left you feeling
devastated. You do not feel as if you could ever forgive him/her for what they did
to you. You feel as if you were completely innocent and undeserving of the
emotional or physical harm that you feel was caused.
You also feel right now like you are an
outsider looking in at all the world around you. You do not feel like anybody
understands you or wants to speak to you. You feel all alone and miserable
inside. You feel hopeless and isolated from the world. Daily you may struggle
with depression and anxiety. You feel as if the only reason you are alive is to
exist or simply pay the bills or try to make an effort every day to drive to
work and perform the same functions everyday, just so at the end of the week
you get our pay check.
I remember feeling much the same way as all the
scenarios I Have described above. I felt hopeless, alone, afraid, and isolated.
I felt as if the world did not want to listen to anything I had to say. I felt
terrified to speak to anyone unless they spoke to me. My world seemed as if it
was caving in on a daily basis. I felt as if I had gone through some of the worst
physical and emotional storms on earth, and nobody understood or could
understand me. I remember daily waking up with no joy or peace in life. I had
to swallow the fact that I might be physically debilitated for life. I
struggled with the thought that I might not ever have normal, flowing
relatinoships with family and friends.
Yet there came a time when I realized I had to
change. I began my journey of forgiveness. I pushed past the discomfort and I
disciplined myself to forgive and walk out my forgiveness. Only then was I
freed from the hopelessness and misery. Only once I forgave was I given a
clearer sense of my purpose and calling. Only then was I able to walk in
fulfillment and confidence that I would soon be able to fully walk into my purpose
as a born again child of God. Once I had dealt with the hurts and issues of the
past I was able to step into my purpose and I began seeing amazing things
happen. God began opening doors for me like never before. I realized that the 7
or 8 years of my journey of trials and hardship had been used to mold and shape
my Spirit into something far better than what I had ever been. I began to see
God’s beauty was being formed in me.
This is my prayer for you as you read this book
and apply the truths that I learned in my journey. I hope these truths and
principles will be used to shape you as you journey into your true purpose and
identity.
I want you to realize that your freedom from
all the baggage you carry, all the lies you believe, and all the hopelessness
you feel lies in dealing with the issues of your heart.
Your key to walking in the fullness of your
purpose, getting a clear direction in life, and finding fulfillment and peace
in this life of uncertainty lies in your being able to truly love others by
coming to a place of forgiveness towards all who have hurt you, despised you,
or rejected you. You will not be able to truly walk in a manner which is free
of fear, guilt, anger, or sadness unless you first deal with those areas of
darkness (past hurt, anger, sadness) in your own heart.
The Question of Love
I
want to ask you something; “Do you truly want to love others unconditionally
and love those whom you come into contact with?
You cannot truly love others until you first
learn to love yourself.
You truly learn to love yourself by dealing
with the issues of he heart that have bothered you for years. All those things
that others (family, friends, etc.) have done in the past to hurt you
intentionally or unintentionally, you have to forgive those things in your
inner self in order to truly love yourself and truly be able to love others.
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