Have you ever been in a situation that causes you to scream, throw a fit, and vent about the injustice being done to you? Guess what my friend, that’s what I like to call a growth opportunity.
A new growth opportunity confronted me the other day. As I talked to my husband about it, he said I could walk away if that’s the right thing to do. Troubled, I called my Pastor for advice. He didn’t comment which way or the other; he said, “You need to do the right thing, at the right time, in the right way, because it’s the right thing to do.”
While I was away for my sister’s wedding, it gave me some thinking time and breathing room. And after much grumbling, I realized it was another growth opportunity. For the last eight years as a baby Christian, I welcomed most challenges; but this time around, I didn’t realize this was a chance for God to make the most of me. I was too busy being focused on how unhappy and uncomfortable I was.
As my friends (especially Aliisa) have told me, it’s easy to sit in the boat and watch Jesus walk on the water. It’s quite another to take the skills, lessons, and faith out onto the water. That first step is an indication of whether you’ll sink or swim. And when you look back into the boat, you’re afraid of failing, because your children are there–looking at your example. Growing in your faith isn’t as simple as reading, praying, and fellowshipping with God. It’s allowing him to take every situation in life and being his witness, his hands and his feet.
We all have moments like this: For you it may be a new co-worker, for someone else it could be a husband that is unsaved, and still elsewhere it could be the job itself. When a situation arises, we have two choices: 1. Throw a fit (you need a long timeout if you are lying on the floor), 2. Embrace it, with your eyes on God. Today and hopefully tomorrow–I can and will choose to embrace it.
14-19My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.
To read more about the author, visit Heather Riggleman
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