The things that shape us.

The things that truly shape us are not the choices that we make. The totality of our lives cannot be found in the choices that we make. If that was true then we would be masters of our own destinies. This is the fodder of all guru's and self help charlatans and has infiltrated the church. Joel Olsteen and others being masters of this kind of teaching. What really shapes our lives is the circumstances over which we have no control and how we react to them. The disasters, the defeats, the tragedies, the loss, these are what truly shape our lives, those and how we respond to them. None of us would choose disaster, none of us would choose tragedy. Yet, the building blocks of who we are, are forged in the fires of affliction. God has guaranteed that there is no money to be made nor fame to be had in sharing this truth............bro Frank

Lovely reply beekpr,

"Somehow, His sovereign grace turns the anguish, pain and suffering to work for my good and His glory - praise be to Him! Much as our flesh wills to avoid adversity, it seems to be an unavoidable part of the plan which our Lord uses to build character."

Amen. If I had written more I would have spoken about the Garden of Gethsemane where it seemed clear that Calvary was not something that the Lord would have chosen yet He bowed His will to the Father's will and set His face towards the task at hand.

Calvary of course, was the crowning achievement of the Lord's work on earth. Victory, the kind of victory that comes out of seeming defeat, is the victory that changes everything. Beauty from the ashes, beauty from the ashes.

Our God can re-build anything. He can take something that has been broken into a million pieces and He can put it back together again. He can take a valley of dry bones, lying dead and lifeless and he can restore them piece by piece and after all of that He can breathe life into them.

Isn't that a beautiful picture of what He has done for us? I know that on this forum alone there would be a thousand testimonies of life coming out of seeming death, of victory coming out of seeming defeat, of beauty from the ashes and restoration from the valley of dry bones.

Maybe there are some reading this that face some kind of crisis today, something that seems insurmountable? Can I encourage you today that there is a God that is higher than your insurmountable circumstances. There is a God who can breathe new life into a situation that seems disasterous. This is what He does. Our choice in these moments is to choose life as we cry out to Him. In Him there is life, in our Father there is joy to be found in the darkest moments of our lives and that Joy is a lifeline to sanity.

May all the saints find the beauty of His glory and Holiness today and find hope that lies in the wellspring of their hearts, Jesus...................bro Frank

Bro Todd writes........

"Do you think our response to the things you mention are choices, or rather a reaction that hinges on where we stand in our faith?"

That is a great question brother. Ultimately I think it hinges on the kind of walk we have. It would be hard to imagine someone with a very shallow faith responding in the right way when faced with great loss or tragedy, and by right way I mean going deeper into the Lord and discovering His great depths. But, this might be the very thing that would propel a saint with a shallow walk into the deeper things of the Lord. He may discover just how shallow he was and be able to discover or rediscover the depths of the Lord..........bro Frank

"What a mighty God we serve... "

Indeed brother. For those who love the Lord, they are driven deeper into His arms in the midst of great trial and tribulation. He alone is our sanity, He alone can restore our joy, He alone can make beauty from the ashes, He alone can sustain us in the deepest wilderness, even if He has to drop manna from heaven and make water spring from rocks, He alone..............bro Frank

Anything I write is for sharing bro Sherlock. God bless you guys............bro Frank