When we are born again, when we become betrothed to the King of kings to become His bride, when the Holy Spirit brings us into the family of God… we begin the greatest adventure of all time.
We may only be a child or we may be a full-grown adult with children of our own; nevertheless God has a plan and a purpose for our life that begins to unfold. Astonishingly, how much God is able to do in us and through us during our life on earth with the unfolding process He has in large part left up to us. But I am not talking about abilities, talents, skills, or even opportunities that from our standpoint seem to be benefiting or limiting factors. With God there are no limitations except as a result of our own human choices. He can gradually or instantly install the skills or abilities we need or He can open the doors to certain schools to teach us. God can place us into situations where doors of opportunity open to us and we get on the job training. It’s His plan and He will carry it out the way He intended for the purpose of spiritually maturing us as His children… as Jesus’ bride which He will present to the Father without spot or blemish. And that’s why the scrubbing needs to take place to remove all of those spots and blemishes that we have gotten on our wedding dress.
The Bible declares that All Things work together for the good of those who love God, for those who are the called according to His purpose. That scripture (Rom 8:28) means many things, but one thing it means for certain is that God can take even a really rotten event and use it as part of the cleansing process… for our ultimate good. We may not immediately see how in the world that circumstance can incorporate a lesson that could possibly help us. But when the dust clears we we will understand, gaining insight and knowledge IF, and here is the big question, if we will search for God with all our heart and ask of Him that we might know the truth and be set free.
Matt 7:7-8 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: 8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
But we must be serious and diligent and keep on asking, seeking, and knocking. If we do we will get our answer, but if we are casual and careless in asking we will get nothing but silence.
Tests, trials, and challenges will come our way for the duration of our journey through this life we live in the world (our wilderness). And we have the same opportunity as did the Israelites as they moved through their wilderness journey, moving ever closer to possessing their Promised Land. We can either complain and grumble about our current challenge and try to apply the “flesh” as they did, or we can ask the One who is in charge of the challenge a couple of key questions… Why is this happening? What are You trying to show me? What are You asking me to do? We need to ask until we get the answer, which will come when He has accomplished what He intended to accomplish with the challenge. And then we need to be obedient to the answer we receive.
But it all has to begin with our stopping and asking Him… Why?