The Unwanted FirstsSample

Growth

Once you have sought the Lord and discovered His goodness in all these unwanted firsts, you must also work at the desire to let Him use your pain for a purpose and grow from that pain.

If everything was always a bed of roses and nothing ever went awry, we'd have nothing to grow from and be brave about. Jesus is after your heart, friend, and He wants to heal it! (Proverbs 23:26)

C.S. Lewis said it so wonderfully in his book, Mere Christianity: “Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”

Oh, if we could only see with His eyes that Christ is merely making room for His massive presence so that others can experience Him better in and through us!

Welcoming God's growth into your life is crucial to the healing process. The study of God's Word and prayer facilitates this ideal. We are to receive instruction from His mouth and lay up His Words in our hearts (Job 22:22). God has promised to give us a new heart and spirit if we will but seek Him to receive it! (Eze. 36:26)

God, and God alone, is the only One able to make beauty out of the ashes of our pain. He desires to scoop up your hot ashes and create an incredible masterpiece that only He is capable of and that only He can take credit for.

Are you willing today to let Him in to do this wonderful work in and through you? Are you ready to grow and transform into something magnificent? It's more than possible if you will only believe, trust, and obey!