Haven’t you noticed that the biggest fights come from what you cannot control, what you cannot work out, or what you cannot change — on your own.  When God is working on the inside, the outside is impossible to change, impossible to fix, and impossible to control.

 

The power, the wisdom, the favor we desire and should expect, is a result of God’s ability to mold and shape our faith through adversity, challenges, and weaknesses (2 Corinthians 12:10). When God is working on the inside, He’s preparing us to produce His fruit on the outside: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you” (John 15:16).

 

Obedience is not just about doing what’s right, obedience is about the position. When God is positioning our thoughts, emotions, or growing us out of our comfort zone, life shows up to make blind spots visible and to make us uncomfortable being comfortable where God is trying to grow us from.  God desires to give us the desires of our heart but our heart has to desire what is in God’s will, what is in God’s plan for us (Jeremiah 29:11), and that our faith is mature enough to handle.

 

The breakup, the letdown, the struggle, the argument, the disappointment, the difficult choice, the hurt that cripples us, the relationship that nearly breaks us, the career that stalls, the job that quits us, the faith in wrong things all present a fight that will cause us to go deeper in Christ or go crazy in emotions. 

 

Haven’t you noticed the more it hurts, the harder it is to pray? The more afraid we are, the angrier we are, and the more disbelieving we are, the more distracted we are? The bible says, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?” (Romans 8:35).  Are you separated from God by the problem, is your obedience to the truth subject to what’s happening? Can you trust God, own your peace through confidence in what God said even when all hell is breaking loose…when you’re in the fiery furnace or the lion’s den? 

 

When God is working on the inside, the outside will tell us why.  Did you give up on your life because a season ended?  Did you trust the enemy and doubt God because the situation looked impossible, because doing what comes next was uncomfortable or because emotions overrode the wisdom of God (Proverbs 4:7)? God is saying, “A storm is a Situation That Overrides a Righteous Mind.” The only thing that can and will bring us back into position to be blessed is obedience to our truth — lining up our thoughts with the wisdom of God, our hope in Christ, and God’s plans for our life (Psalm 23:4, 2 Corinthians 10:5).

 

If God is working on the inside, He’s not working on what’s going on outside.  He’s not trying to fix them, He’s working on you.  He’s not working on that job, that turndown, that failure or that rejection, that closed door or that wrong, God is working on the inside to keep what happens on the outside from destroying us.  We have this assurance, “God works all things together for the good…” (Romans 8:28).

 

God wants your obedience to His word. No matter how bad it hurts right now, no matter what emotions say, God desires our heart to tremble at the truth and not the situation: Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?” declares the LORD. “These are the ones I look on with favor: those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word” (Isaiah 66:2).

 

You’re not being punished, you’re being prepared. This is God’s power move.  God is proving that you were stronger than you thought you were.  He’s drawing you closer to unstoppable, fearless faith.  He’s building up your confidence, He’s making your path straight and He’s reminding you that, “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.”  This is your setup for your divine come up.  Get in position, get in the truth, God is getting ready to turn your fire into your fruit.

 

Share and be blessed.

 

Pastor Patrick