"God's curriculum for all who sincerely want to know Him and do His will, always includes lessons we wish we could skip...With intimate understanding of our deepest needs and individual capacities, He chooses our curriculum."
~ Elisabeth Elliot ~
We have all experienced things in life that we wish we could skip right over. Maybe you are in that place right now. When I look back over the difficult things that have happened in my life, those very things I thought would kill me, actually made me stronger. I never realized it at the time that I was growing stronger, but when the next trial came a long..I was stronger and it was then, that I saw the growth in me.
God has a curriculum written for each one of us. He alone knows what it will take to do that deeper work in us and to be an example to others. If all we do is grumble at how hard life is, we will be missing those deeper things He wants to teach us.
Part of the curriculum that God has chosen for me is living with several chronic illnesses. I can't even list all the things that He has taught me the last 16 years as I have made the journey through illness and pain. I have been discouraged more times than I can remember. God has always faithfully picked me up and and encouraged me in one way or another. He's been faithful at every turn and every trial. The trial or illness didn't always go away, but He was faithful to give me the strength to press on and press through each and every time. If you think about it, what choice do we have? We can either go through the things in our life with God or without Him. We can choose to grow closer to Him or to be mad at Him.
I only want to go deeper with the Lord. Things are difficult enough in this life... I don't want to go through things more than once to learn the same lesson all over again because I missed it the first time. I have done that before. Things were almost more painful the second time around. My prayer is, "Lord, don't let me miss what it is you are trying to teach me. Pleassssseeeeeee I don't want to have to do this again." (:
God loves us so much that He writes individual curriculum for each one of us...pretty cool when you think about it!
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."
Romans 8:28
3 comments:
Elisabeth Elliot is one of my favorite authors...she has lived through so much and has taught us all more from what she has learned.
I just heard this comment:
...Make your mess your message....pretty simple terms, but certainly it is how we can use our illnesses and other trials to reach others and glorify God.
I enjoyed your devotional today very much ~ I am going to get out one of my EE books and read it again!
God bless
Thanks for today's post. I am a slow learner, so I needed it.
I liked the quote by Betty E. She and I have had many discussions over the years about the twists and turns our lives take. Her testimony has always remained strong, her faith so solid, yet her life was marred with tragedies, which time has shown us, God used mightily for His glory!
This was a great reminder post! Thanks
(I'm doing a post soon for the 53rd anniversary of events in Equador so many years ago.)
It is really cool when you think about it!
A special curriculum just for me -- I hadn't thought of it that way before :o)
Blessings!
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