daily devotional

Whatever you’re going through right now, yes this present mess or stress, understand God is using it to prepare you for the role you will play in the future. You are being strengthened and refined today for a tomorrow full of purpose. We can make it through most anything if we know it’s for a purpose. If we know the path is taking us somewhere good we can stick with it. It’s when we lose faith in the destination that we wander off path and get stuck.

God has a plan for you. He has a destination in mind for your life. A purpose that is a perfect fit for you in every way. A future that uses your every talent and every experience, making you the absolute ideal person for the job. No one else will be able to do this like you. But maybe you don’t see that future yet. Maybe God hasn’t revealed his plans to you … will you still trust him? Will you still trust that he has a plan, it’s a good plan, you haven’t screwed that plan up, you haven’t missed out on the plan, and everything you’re going through right now is simply preparing you better for that plan. Ahhhh, feel the release right there? You’ve been trying to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders all while God has been saying, “girl, if you’ll turn that over for me the whole world fits perfectly in the palm of my hand.”

My son left for basic training in the US Army on July 21st. In 82 days they have trained him to be a true warrior. In 82 days his body has transformed, his mind has shifted, he has matured and he is no longer the person he was when he left his mama’s house. This is the result of an intense 82 days. Only the most extreme pressures could have made this impact. Only the most stressful of circumstances could have strengthened and refined him in this way, this quickly.

You see we want change all while we want everything to stay the same. Life simply doesn’t work that way. Just as my son couldn’t become a warrior sitting in my basement playing Call of Duty, you can’t become the woman God created you to be living in comfort. Comfortable living leads to unmet potential. Comfortable living leads to drifting. Comfortable living leads to future disappointment where you wake up one day miserable in a life you don’t like, looking in the mirror at a person you no longer recognize. And your creator loves you so darn much that he just won’t let you sit there in comfort to waste away.

This is why he has shaken your world up. Perhaps this is why he has allowed your current disaster. It’s so that you don’t miss the life available to you. It’s so that you are prepared for the role you’re going to play in the future. There’s a warrior inside of you and she simply couldn’t come out in the way things used to be.

Genesis 50: 20 says “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”

Romans 8: 28 says “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

So here’s your choice today. As things are harder than you expected, as things take longer than you anticipated, as you are faced with tough decisions and stressful circumstances, you have a choice … GET BITTER OR GET BETTER.

My son has been yelled at non-stop for the past 82 days. For 82 days he’s been told he’s nothing and he can do nothing right. For 82 days he’s running on a few hours of sleep, pushed beyond any physical limit he thought he had, And all the while he’s had a choice. Get bitter about it or get better. The bitter ones quickly fall to the bottom. The ones who chose to get better rise to the top. They excel. This is why it’s hard. It’s part of the training. They’re separating the masses to find the ones who will get better.

Will that be you? Will you take your current circumstances and choose to let them make you better? Will you take what has the potential of making you bitter and INSIST that you will rise above and become better because of it? You will have every right to complain about what has happened. You will have every right to tell your sob story to anyone who will listen. You could put that victim label on and wear your pain for the rest of your days. You could do that. And that’s your reward. That’s where it ends. All your god given potential stops there.

How sad would it be to one day stand before your creator and hear him say “I allowed this to touch your life because I knew it would make you better. I wanted to use it to strengthen you for an important role I had in mind for you. But you didn’t use it. You didn’t see what I was doing. You didn’t get better, you became bitter.”

Don’t let that be you. Shake off any layers of bitterness you may have been piling on. Let’s just acknowledge right here, right now, what happened to you wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right. You didn’t deserve that. It shouldn’t have happened.

Now, can we leave it there. Will you refuse to pick it back up again? Will you decided from this day forward what has happened to you will make you BETTER, not bitter. Open your eyes wide to see how God is using every ounce of harm the enemy intended in your life for good now. Nothing is wasted with our God, not when you refuse to get bitter.

God is changing your life and preparing you for future roles. That process isn’t always pretty and certainly isn’t easy. But doesn’t it make it more tolerable knowing everything is for a purpose? Stand up tall beautiful warrior, you’re in training for a dynamic role in your future. You’re being strengthened and refined for something worth living for. You’ll get there. You’ll step into your destiny if you refuse to get bitter and chose to get better.