The tests God uses to discipline and prune us have nothing to do with our Salvation. Our Eternity has already been settled, once and for all. Now that we are His, God desires to define and refine us. God defines who we now are by getting rid of sin in our lives; that’s discipline. Then He refines us by cutting away things that no longer are fruitful in our lives; that’s pruning. As Mr Wilkinson says, we are “…tried by Him, but not judged or guilty.” (p 73)
As I said yesterday, this process continues throughout our lives here. Recently, God allowed me to go through my first major “Faith crisis” to further define and refine me. By God’s Grace, I was able to endure and overcome it, and can now honestly say, I am a better person because of it. As many of you know, my daughter, Rebecca, passed away, a little over 15 years ago. This devastated me, but I still held on to these three truths: 1- God is still real, 2- God really still loves me and 3- God really still has a good plan for my life.
It was not until about 4 years ago that some other Faith shaken events happened that caused me to begin to question my Faith. I began praying to God, “Lord, I know You can, but I don’t trust You will.” I continued to have Faith in the Power of God, but I no longer believed He would grant me the desires of my heart and resolve the issues that were tearing me apart. You see the problem with this prayer is that the focus was still on what I wanted, what I felt should happen, what I thought was right. It was still MMI-focused and it began to effect my relationship with God. Again, this was not a matter of my Salvation, in fact, I continued to pray and serve my Lord with as much of me as I could. You see, I was like Peter at this point and said, “Where else can I go? You have the Word of Everlasting Life!” (see Jn 6:68)
The issue though was that God and I had come to an impasse. If I did not choose to let go of whatever was still in me causing this MMI-mentality, then I would not grow any further. By His Grace, I would not lose any growth He had developed up to that point, but becoming filled with more of the Fruit of the Spirit? Something had to be pruned from me…problem is, I didn’t even know what that was…but, of course, God did…
2023’s Got A Minute? Book Club
January: The First & Best Book Ever: The Bible
February: Love Is In the Air: “The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts” by Gary Chapman
March: Spring Growth: “Secrets of the Vine” by Bruce Wilkinson
<>< Peace, Diane
