This isn’t going as planned. Things were supposed to have been different. This wasn’t on the agenda. Why did it have to turn out this way?

If we are all honest, we have had these very thoughts quite frequently in our lives. None of us are immune from the constant questions and fightings against what we can’t understand. It’s as if we’re pondering things that don’t have an answer from our viewpoint. It feels good to question the unknown, yet it still doesn’t quiet the longing to know even more of why things are the way they are. If we could get the answers to all of our why questions, then maybe it would all make sense.

So often in life we are going to face things that aren’t right, fair, or deserved. We then get discouraged and depressed. We feel as if God is nowhere to be found, and if He was found, then we’d want to know why He was letting this happen. We think that God has forsaken us. That He’s left us alone to fend for ourselves and face these rocky waters all by ourselves, but what if there was more to this than just what we’re seeing on the surface? What if there was something greater at stake here that we almost missed?

We are told in The Bible that we will face trouble in this world. It’s not a question if we’ll face trouble, but when we’ll face trouble. Not exactly the most encouraging news that we’ve ever heard. Certainly not the kind of news that makes us want to stand up and shout, “Praise God.” It’s more like the news that makes us want to run and hide and never come back again.

If we can look past the surface level of our pain and trials, then we’ll see just what God is trying to show us. Amidst all of the horrible things that we go through, we can be certain that God is greater. No matter how low we go in the pit, He has the ability to bring us out. He has the ability to redeem all of the garbage into something we never dreamed was possible. He is able to give us beauty for ashes. He is The One that can take a mess and give us a message and make a testimony out of our test. Nothing is impossible for our God.

What you thought was too broken or beyond repair is just the place that God likes to start. He is longing to create a masterpiece out of all those things that hurt too much to revisit. That crushed your soul. That you gave up on. That you wish would have never happened. This is where He does His best work.

Even though none of these things are good in our eyes, God is able to use it for our good. He is growing us and changing us in the process. He’s creating a new person. He’s strengthening the real you. He’s giving us a confidence knowing that each trial is making us that much stronger. No longer are we the weak people that we used to be. We are soldiers showing up to fight with our spiritual armor on. We aren’t going to take it anymore.

It takes the good and the bad in our life. So often the bad pushes us into the good. The bad things that appear as showing up to harm us are really just launching us into our destiny. We aren’t able to see this at the time, but God does. He knows all about it and could stop it, yet He chooses not to. Our finite minds can’t comprehend the infinite mind of Abba Father in these circumstances. Looking back we’ll see how all of the pieces of the puzzle fit together, but not in the middle of the battle. Not while we’re in the middle of the fight.

One action leads to another action to another action to another action. It’s all a domino effect. Sometimes these actions appear to be going nowhere, but in God’s eyes, they are. They are all moving you closer to the place He desires to bring you to. This beautiful future that you can’t see with your physical eyes, but one that is seen with eyes of faith. Don’t curse the bad times. Praise God for where He’s taking you even in the midst of what’s ugly and doesn’t make sense.

God is bringing life back to these dry bones, these broken dreams, these hopeless situations. Resurrecting what once was dead, but is now experiencing new life. He’s breathing His breath of life back into you. Pushing you on to where you never thought you’d go. It’s tough to keep going, but you are going to make it. Just trust Him.