Another way God changes us is through circumstances. Problems, pressures, disappointments, sorrows, hardships, and stress always get our attention. C.S. Lewis said, ‘Pain insists on being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures…but shouts to us in our pain.’

The J.B. Phillips translation of Romans 8:28-29 reads: ‘To those who love God, who are called according to his plan, everything that happens fits into a pattern for good. God, in his foreknowledge, chose them to bear the family likeness of his Son.’ God won’t always take us out of bad situations, but He will use them to bring about change within us. The interesting thing about how God uses circumstances is that their source makes no difference to Him. We might bring problems on ourselves because we didn’t listen to God or didn’t seek His wisdom in the first place. Sometimes they’re caused by other people, and sometimes the Enemy causes things to happen to us. But the source of the circumstances is irrelevant. God can and will use them all. He’s saying, ‘I will make it fit into my plan for your life, to make you more Christ-like.’ That means we can learn something from every circumstance we find ourselves in, if we have the right attitude towards it.

Hebrews 5:8 tells us that ‘Even though Jesus was the Son of God he learned obedience by what he suffered’ (NCV). If God used the challenges, conflicts, and circumstances of life to prepare His own Son for His destiny, He’ll surely do the same in our lives. Jesus understands how hard it can be, but instead of trying to escape our circumstances, let’s remember God’s at work through them, learn from them and use them to grow stronger.

What now?

Before you go about your day, pray, ‘Father, whatever life throws at me today, help me to use it as a stepping stone on the path You’ve chosen for me. I pray that every experience will in some way drive me closer to You.’