I don’t know where this day finds you, what the circumstances are to which you woke up this morning, or to what degree you are experiencing the crushing weight of life's sorrows. I don’t know the hopes which you have held close to your heart, the dreams you have cherished, or the goals you have worked toward with all your heart, that all seem a distant pipe dream at this time. But I do have some idea of how it feels.
Oswald Chambers says this: “If our hopes are being disappointed just now, it means that they are being purified. There is nothing noble the human mind has ever hoped for or dreamed of that will not be fulfilled.”
Friends, God is not dictated to or limited by our circumstances; he sees the grief and pain we feel but, in his sovereignty over all of life and creation, he has allowed our lives to fall into the lines in which they exist in this present moment. But (and God has many great ‘buts’!), our circumstances do not hinder, even for a moment, the good work that he has begun in our lives; they do not hinder our God-given purposes. In fact, the very circumstances we woke up to this morning will be used for your good, and mine, too, as we continue to love him and turn our hearts to him.
So what is the good work that God has begun in you and me?
It is the work of salvation. When we surrendered our lives to him we became new creations, as the apostle Paul says. We are different than we were before we knew him, and now we are filled with the desire to know him, to have his character, and to be found pleasing to him in our internal and external lives. But this work is not done. Every day we continue in this renewing process of being formed in the image of Christ. The final consummation of this work in which we will be made perfect and wholly complete will happen when we enter fully into Christ’s presence.
This good work of God is happening right now, wherever and however you are. He is purifying you, as Mr Chambers says, pruning away what is dead, but every hope and dream that is of God will remain; you will see the fulfilment of it.
Stay steady, dear friends, and trust that God knows and sees every detail. Trust also the good work he is doing in you through them.
