Some seasons seem as if we are not making progress when everything seems routine. Sometimes we even make mistakes and bring challenges to ourselves… The beauty of being a child of God is that everything we go through is useful to the fulfilment of God’s plans for our lives! “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28
The prolonged challenges don’t mean all is over with you, it’s rather making you stronger and positioning you for greater things. The betrayal, the breakup, the loss, yes it was painful, but it will be useful for the fulfilment of God’s plans for your life. You gained experience, wisdom, and insight.
The enemy meant it for harm but God knows how to turn it for your good. You are not going to come out the same, you are going to come out stronger; with more faith, more courage, greater character, and greater passion. However, if you don’t get this understanding, it may be tempting to lose hope and live discouraged…
Whenever you are faced with tough times, always remember that if it would not be useful in the fulfilment of God’s plans for your life God will not allow it. “I can’t promise you there won’t be seasons of opposition but I can promise you that if you keep the right attitude, you will come out better and stronger.
The scripture tells us how Moses was born into a challenging environment. When the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, Pharaoh became very concerned about their population. They were multiplying and growing in strength. So he ordered all the Hebrew baby boys under the age of two to be killed.
For 3 months Moses’s mother hid baby Moses, but when he got too big, she put him in a basket and sent him down the River Nile. There were snakes, crocodiles, and all kinds of danger, but when you commit your children into God’s hands, He knows how to protect them, how to keep them from evil and harm and the wrong people.
It just so happened that Pharaoh’s daughter was out there taking a bath at the river. She heard the crying coming from the basket. When she saw baby Moses, it was love at first sight. She said to her maid “This must be one of the Hebrew babies”. Well, her father was the one who said they all had to be killed, but she took baby Moses to the palace to raise him as her son.
Moses grew up in royalty. He had the finest education of that day. The Egyptians were leaders in science and technology, we still marvel at the huge pyramids they built, the engineering, and the design without any of our modern-day equipment. Living in the palace, Moses learned leadership and protocol, how to handle himself with people of influence, and all about authority, business, and government. (Exodus 2:1-10)
What made it even more unusual was that he was a Hebrew living in an Egyptian world. No other Hebrew had ever been where he was and experienced life in the palace, and how their system functioned. But as Moses grew into a young man, great as it was to have the influence, great as it was to be in the palace, he didn’t feel right. He was welcomed as an Egyptian, but he knew he didn’t belong there.
He was a Hebrew and he could feel God’s calling on his life. Deep down he knew he was supposed to deliver his people from the oppression of the Egyptians. One day he saw an Egyptian foreman mistreating a Hebrew slave. He didn’t think anyone was watching, so he killed that foreman.
Word got out about what had happened, and Moses had to flee for his life. He headed out into the desert like a fugitive on the run. He lived in the desert for 40 years, he became an expert at surviving in the wilderness. He knew how to handle the terrain, the climate, the different seasons, where to camp and when to move. (Exodus 2:11-25)
He heard a voice boom out, “Moses, take off your shoes, you are standing on holy ground”. That’s when God told Him, “Now is time to deliver my people. Go tell the Pharaoh to let them go”. After 40 years God showed up, and said in effect, “Moses, everything you have been through has been necessary. It hasn’t stopped you, it has prepared you for what I have called you to do.” You are not defined by your past, you are prepared by your past. God’s Plan is still on schedule.
GOD’S PLAN IS STILL ON SCHEDULE
Your time is coming and what God has plans for your life is still on schedule. The dreams He has placed in your heart may have taken longer than you thought, there may have been some challenges and some obstacles, but it was all a part of His plan. He is gathering up the fragments, He is putting the broken pieces back together, it’s still going to happen.
Moses headed on to Egypt and after a series of events Pharaoh finally decided to let the Israelites go, they were delivered from 430 years of slavery, a day they had always dreamed of. Moses led them out toward the Promised Land, but to get to that land they had to travel through the desert. Well, they were former slaves, they didn’t know how to survive in the wilderness!
However, it just so happened that their leader Moses had spent 40 years in the desert. He was an expert at survival in the wilderness. He was skilled in all the terrain, logistics, and how to maneuver through the land.
God had prepared him for what he would need in the future. We are not going to understand it all in real-time, it’s not going to make sense: this delay, the bad break, the people that lied about me, this obstacle that’s not changing. That’s when you have to trust, “God, I know you are in control.
You are going to come into seasons where you look back and think, “That is what God was doing. That is why the door closed, that is why the contract fell through, that is why they walked away” That is why He allowed the challenges to persist despite my prayers. God didn’t send the storm, but He used the storm. He didn’t send the challenge but He used it for your good.
It may not happen the way you think, Moses didn’t like fleeing into the desert, but that was a necessary season in his life, where he learned things that he needed for his future. He wouldn’t have liked to be sent down the River Nile, not growing up in his own home, but what he learned in the palace was useful in God’s plans for his life. One of the reasons he could summon courage before Pharaoh.
On the way to God’s ultimate plans for your life there will be these seasons you don’t understand. You have to trust that they are all useful to where you are going. The good news is that God specializes in gathering up the fragments of your life. He doesn’t discard the broken pieces, He knows how to bring beauty out of the ashes, how to take a mess and turn it into a miracle.
You may be in a challenging place now, but God has not forgotten about you. Where you are is not where you are going to end up, your burning bush is coming. Now, trust Him in the wilderness seasons. Do the right thing when you don’t understand. God wouldn’t allow the challenges if He wasn’t going to bring some kind of good out of it.
As you keep moving forward in faith, knowing that God is in control, I decree and declare that your challenges and opposition are going to turn into power, strength and miracles. Like Moses, you are going to still fulfil your assignment, be joyful and become all you were created to be, in Jesus’ name.
The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift His countenance upon you, And give you peace.”’!
