“So we are convinced that every detail of our lives is continually woven together for good,
for we are his lovers who have been called to fulfill his designed purpose.”
(Romans 8:28 TPT)
Have you noticed that there is a certain process to most things? To take gardening, for example, you plan, measure, turn over the soil, fertilize, then plant seeds, pull weeds, and tend the garden until it is time to harvest. You can’t harvest before you plant. To wash dishes you can’t dry the dirty dishes. To decorate a Christmas tree you can’t start by packing away the ornaments. There’s a specific order – a timing – in which things have to happen.
Quite frankly, some unexpected things God uses to “crush” us.
Take a look back at the steps you’ve taken in life to get to where you are. If you have a professional job, you probably also have a high school diploma and a collage degree. If you have teenage children, you probably had babies, then toddlers, then elementary age kids first. If you have good spiritual disciplines you probably have taken time to invest in your relationship with God, praying, studying the Bible, meeting with other believers, etc. Any forward movement involves work – sometimes work we expect and want to do, like a college degree in order to get a job, but sometimes work that is unexpected and challenges us.
Do you remember a time in your life when you felt crushed by emotions, circumstances, grief, health issues, or a host of other things? If that time was awhile ago, you may be able to look back now and realize how God was using that time to grow you and to stretch you. If that time is now, it may be more difficult to see, but God is probably still working to grow you. Sometimes the work God does feels like it is truly crushing us. But, I believe that, just as in a garden, in due time and with due process, you will see the spiritual (and possibly emotional, relational, physical, etc.) harvest. The challenge is to not resist when God is working on you. Chuck Pierce said, “Unless the skin [of a grape] is broken, you will end up as a raisin”* [instead of the wine God intends.] Although I like raisins, I’d rather be his “wine” – the fullness of what God wants for me.
And that may very well mean having to have some of my hard-heartedness, fears, bitterness, unforgiveness, anger, frustration, and other parts of my flesh crushed out of me.
Being crushed by God is not easy. It’s often very painful. But when we allow God to crush out of our souls the impurities and things that hinder us, when we allow God to “take out the trash,” so to speak, we are left with hearts that are more pure and more holy like Jesus.
Where is the great beauty in God’s crushing in your life?
Perfect God,
Thank you that you know the end from the beginning and your purposes and intentions will stand. You will bring to pass what you have planned and we thank you for your faithfulness to us. Thank you that when we walk through very difficult seasons of life, you are not only with us, but weaving every detail of our lives together in such a way that it is for our good. Help us to surrender to your perfect processes when it seems you are crushing us. Help us remember that your timing is perfect and your work is exactly what we need, even when we can’t understand what or why. You are wonderful in wisdom and counsel, Holy Spirit, so guide us in all our ways. In Jesus’s name we pray, Amen.
“And we know [with great confidence] that God [who is deeply concerned about us] causes all things to work together [as a plan] for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His plan and purpose.” (Romans 8:28 AMP)
“I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is no one like me,
declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, “My purpose shall stand,
and I will fulfill my intention,”
calling a bird of prey from the east,
the man for my purpose from a far country.
I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass;
I have planned, and I will do it.” (Isaiah 46:9-11 NRSV)
“For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. ” (Jeremiah 29:11 NRSV)
“Listen, and hear my voice;
Pay attention, and hear my speech.
Do those who plow for sowing plow continually?
Do they continually open and harrow their ground?
When they have leveled its surface,
do they not scatter dill, sow cummin,
and plant wheat in rows
and barley in its proper place,
and spelt as the border?
For they are well instructed;
their God teaches them.
Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge,
nor is a cart wheel rolled over cummin;
but dill is beaten out with a stick,
and cummin with a rod.
Grain is crushed for bread,
but one does not thresh it forever;
one drives the cart wheel and horses over it,
but does not pulverize it.
This also comes from the Lord of hosts;
he is wonderful in counsel,
and excellent in wisdom. (Isaiah 28:23-29 NRSV)
* https://www.elijahlist.com/words/display_word.html?ID=26763