God Can Use Your Hard Stuff
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” Romans 8:18
“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Romans 12:2
It may be hard to believe considering how painful the hard stuff in our live can be, but the Lord can use our hard stuff in beautiful and powerful and life-changing ways. If you’re struggling with hard stuff right now, or have in the past, and we all face struggles from time to time, and for some of us much more than some of the time, sometimes much if not most and even all of the time, please don’t miss your opportunities when it comes to the hard stuff in your life.
There are at least four main ways I believe the Lord uses the hard stuff we go through that I see with people whose true stories are in the Bible – and see in my own life. I believe if you open wide your heart and your eyes, you may see the same in your own life – or will see in your own life if you yield your heart and life totally to Christ. The key is we need to surrender our hearts and lives to Christ in order for God to fully use the hard stuff in our lives in these ways. If we do not yield ourselves to the Lord, we will face hard stuff in our lives – but without the precious fruit the Lord can bear in and through us when we do not stand in His way and submit ourselves fully to His lordship. Hard stuff doesn’t have to be all and only about suffering. Great beauty can be found in the midst of it, through it, and as a result of it. Because of the Lord.
- The Spirit of God can use our hard stuff to bring us to a place of desperation and to repentance from our sins so we turn to Him for forgiveness by giving ourselves to Christ if we have never done so before or by returning to the Lord through repentance if we already believe in Christ as Lord but have turned away.
- The Lord can use our hard stuff to show us our ever need for Him, to make and keep us humble and desperate for Him, to give us and increase our hunger for Him, to keep us crying out for Him, and to draw us ever closer to Himself, to keep us in a position of needing and hopefully desiring to cling and cleave and hang on to Him for dear life.
- God can use the hard stuff to refine us, to teach us His ways, and to make us more and more like Him, continually perfecting His love in us and helping us to continually purge ourselves of what He wants gone while become increasingly filled with more of Himself and the fruit He bears in and through us.
- The Lord can use the hard stuff to make us more sensitive to and compassionate with and loving toward and helpful to others facing hard stuff and use our testimonies of how He brings us through and uses our hard times for His glory to help others to find and follow Him and trust Him right in the midst of trials.
The Bible is chock full of stories of how God uses hard stuff in people’s lives to bring them into His fellowship, and into righteousness, to help others, and to bring glory to His name. May the same be true in our own stories.
Please don’t let your hard stuff go to waste. Submit yourself wholly to the Lord Jesus Christ, to His lordship, to God and His Word, and allow the Lord to use your hard stuff to bring you to repentance and into intimate fellowship with Himself, transform you into the man or woman He has created you to be, and to use you to help build His Kingdom of Christ followers, to love and serve Him and a world in dire need of Christ and His salvation, His love and compassion, and His sweet mercy. Oh, may you live to bring glory to His holy forever name!