Facing Adversity

The last time I talked to you, I discussed the lies we love to believe about adversity. To read Part One, please click here. Reading part one will help you understand where this is going. I would hate for you to be confused or just read half of the truths about adversity and what God’s Word says about it!

Chip Ingram insight about adversity has helped me realize that God is, above all, in control and He shows me that I have so much to learn about life, His Word, and most of all, His faithfulness.

In the last blog, we discovered that adversity is in fact, these three truths:

Normal.

Expected.

Purposeful.

Today, I am going to finish what the last two truths of adversity are, according to Chip Ingram’s sermon. 

It’s powerful. 1 Peter 5:10 says, “And the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.” 

We find a wonderful promise in this verse: God is going to restore us to make us strong, firm, and steadfast in HIM! And this will come out of suffering. Suffering is what’s going to make us stronger, more steadfast, and firmer in His Word, His Son, our faith in Him, and we will know our Father more through our sufferings.

Chip said something that I wrote down in the notes I have from his sermon: “Adversity is the HAMMER that changes us.”

OUCH! 

Adversity is the hammer that straightens us out, to make us more like Christ. When we go through adversity, it’s painful, it sucks, and it’s terrible. But it’s because Christ is hammering us to change us to become more like Him. It’s a way to put us in a position to humble ourselves to allow Christ to do His work in us.

That’s a hard one to shallow. I feel like Chip is basically saying, “Jesus wants to hammer you to make your more perfect in Him.” How scary! How beautiful!

My adversity has made me scared, but I pour my heart out to Him and let Him know that I’m scared and I cannot do this on my own. I need His help. And then the next day, I’m sitting here writing this post. Which reminds me that my adversity is my hammer to make me more reliant on Christ and making me more steadfast on Him. I also realize that I need to start memorizing verses to help me put my focus on Christ instead of having a pity party for myself. Last I checked, Satan wants me to have a pity party and he’s invited to it. I don’t want him anywhere near my heart as Christ is hammering me out, so I need to stand fast and kick Satan out!

Okay, enough of that. Let’s move onto the next one, shall we?

It’s temporary. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 says, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

My Grandmama used to say all the time, “This too shall pass.” And she was very Biblical and right. What you are going through is temporary. Yes, you may not see the end of the tunnel, but God sees the whole picture. He sees what you’ll become after all your trials. You do not. It’s frustrating, I know. But I am finding myself believing more and more that God wants us in this position. It makes us get on our knees and give our problems to Him. It’s then that He can work in us.

The verse above mentions how our “light and momentary troubles” are, in fact, giving us kudo points in heaven. So fix our eyes on what is not seen, because that is eternal. 

Chip points out that the people who are successful in marriages are the ones who have suffered much and have toughed it out. They knew it was temporary and kept pressing on. That is how you and I will be successful: to realize that what we’re going through is temporal and to tough it out. It will make us stronger in Christ and who we are.

Before I let you go, let’s review the 5 truths of Adversity together:

It’s normal.

It’s expected.

It’s purposeful.

It’s powerful.

It’s temporary.

Chip wrote in his notes, “Adversity is an uninvited, unwanted friend in the hands of an all knowing God whose purpose is to wean us of our self-dependency and pride, usher us into deeper intimacy with Jesus, and redirect our paths to insure our greatest good and His greatest glory.” 

That is why He allows us to go through adversity; to make us more intimate with Him and to take us off our pride and self-dependency us humans have. He wants our paths to glorify Him, all the while, blessing us for allowing Him to work through us.

I know you’re facing your giant, whatever that may be. I am too. Satan is attacking and he’s attacking hard. I know the struggle. But I hope these past two posts have helped you understand what the Bible has to say about adversity and encourage you. I know when I write these posts, I am encouraged as well. It helps that our Lord understands and asks us to press on because He died so He can work in us and through us.

There’s one more thing Chip said and I believe that you’ll be encouraged more: “I can’t, He never said I could; He can, He always said He would.”

Please my friend, remember these words. Remember that adversity is our hammer to become more like Christ. Remember that we cannot, but Christ can. He will be faithful and protect us.

Let Jesus work in you this adversity season. And remember the five truths and what the Bible says about it. To listen to this sermon, click here and listen to “Facing Adversity Part 1 and 2”.

If you ever need prayer, please let me know as I would LOVE to pray for you and your current struggle! You’re not alone, my dear friend!