Do difficult times make your heart harder or do they expand it?
After long years of mediocrity and many difficulties, one day I made a decision that has continued until today to guide the way I conduct every area of my life. I decided to see the hand of God at work in everything that concerns me, especially when it seems to me that he is silent or is not working for my good, when it seems that the blessing I so much want is farther away than ever.
When trouble and distress get worse and worse, when tension enters into various relationships, when there is a delay in the answer that I so much need to hear, when negative feelings start to boil up inside me, I choose to connect all those things together, much like we do with a child's picture made by "connecting the dots." I connect all those difficulties into one complete picture so I can see the single line that leads from them to heaven.
Do problems and difficulties cause you to harden your heart to God? If so, you need a change of direction. Try to see in those troubles how God is attempting to speak to you, how he is raising his voice to get across to you the same message that he has been trying for some time to speak to you more gently.
If the same problem seems to arise again and again in various areas, it is not possible that they are caused by a variety of external factors. It is not possible that everybody around you is wrong and only you are right. Check if your heart has gotten hard, if there has been a narrowing of that place in your heart that belongs to God. If so, soften your heart, broaden it by repentance and forgiveness, and allow God to speak to you that word you are having difficulty hearing.
"Relieve the troubles of my heart, and bring me out of my distresses." (Psalm 25:17)
- 28 DECEMBER -