If we were perfect in God’s eyes, would we have need for Him in our lives? I think not. If we had all our physical needs met daily, would we call out to Him for help. I think not. If all our emotional relationships were running smoothly, would we be crying on God’s shoulder? I think not.
Whether we like to believe it or not, God plans situations into our lives in order to cause us to continue seeking Him. Why? It’s not that He gets some kind of joy out of seeing us battling through our lives – not at all – but He wants us to get to know Him better. Those of us who are parents understand that we always want the best for our children. The saying “..sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind..” springs to mind.
As best as we can, we strive to engineer circumstances so that our children turn out to be the best they can be. God is the same with us. He knows each one of us intimately and therefore knows exactly what situations are needed in our lives, in order to keep us on a path where we will end up with Him when we leave this earth.
We all have situations in our lives that we don’t really want to face. These situations I call ‘sour balls’ because they are similar to the sour ball sweets we can buy at sweet shops. They are situations that normally start off very favourably in our lives and then begin to get worse as time goes by. Eventually, like the sweet, if we don’t take action the ‘sourness’ will remain.
What we really need to understand is that God has allowed them into our lives. Why would He allow hardship into our lives you might ask?
Firstly, as mentioned, He allows these things as a process of refining us. Paul the Apostle talks about us “working out our salvation” in the book of Phil (Phil.2:12). Therefore, almost daily we have challenges to overcome which turn us towards God. Secondly, if we are not walking in God’s principles, then we are very likely reaping for behaviour we have sown in our past. God, in His infinite wisdom, will still use these situations to our spiritual benefit and teach us the error of our ways. What a wonderful caring Father we have!
Some examples of ‘sour balls’ can be found in relationships, challenges in the work place and any outstanding debt that we may have.
Remember, each sour ball will simply sit and get more sour as time goes by if we don’t deal with them. In my line of business, I provide products to my customers, which we are not responsible for manufacturing. Therefore, very often one of my sour balls is to explain to the client that their goods are going to be delayed because of a manufacturing ‘glitch’. These problems are not caused by us, but by the manufacturer. So it is with a lot of anxiety that I have to approach my client after having committed to a delivery date – given me by my supplier! Not wanting to speak to the customer, I would often leave it and hope that the challenge would simply disappear. It never did, in fact it got worse (more sour) as time went by.
One day, I heard a colleague of mine say, “MAKE THAT CALL!”. It was then I realised that sitting on the challenge was not going to resolve it. The sourness would continue to stay with me until I dealt with it. I also realised that it was fear of the unknown that kept me from dealing with the challenge.
I saw the Lord’s hand in this and understood that through the situation, He was going to teach me to overcome this fear. However, I had to learn to trust Him for the outcome of the call. I did. Now each morning when I go to work, I make a list of all the ‘sour balls’ I need to deal with, starting with the most difficult. Before calling the client, I pray and ask Father for His will to be done and to help me trust Him, not only for words to speak, but to receive the outcome peacefully, as His will. Feeling uncomfortable, I ‘MAKE THAT CALL’. It is amazing how the Lord undertakes in these circumstances and sovereignly sorts them out – the sour ball has been removed! With the sour ball gone, peace returns and I have grown that little bit closer to the Lord – learning to trust Him that bit more!
If you have any ‘sour balls’ in your life, don’t delay. Ask the Lord to help you face them – as David faced Goliath – He will help you overcome the fear. Don’t feel alone, we all have ‘giants’ to face. Remember it’s part of a process God has intended to help us become more like Him and to learn to trust Him more.
Thanks for sharing this time with me. Be blessed until we meet with the Master again soon.
From: “…time with the Master…”