God's Purpose And Destiny For Our Lives

In our last lesson, we looked at how God sculpts and molds are character so that we more closely resemble His Son Jesus. He does it similar to a sculptor forms a beautiful statue out of a hunk of rock. He removes (or chips away) the parts that don't like the statue he is trying to form. God takes us through a similar process, using difficulties and trials in our lives to chip away the dead, carnal nature; so that the true nature of Christ can shine through us. That is a process of maturity or discipleship.

A lot of us don't like the process by which He does that, but He is going do that in our lives. Let me give you three major ways that He sculpts the character of Jesus in us.

Number 1: God uses trouble to teach us to trust him. Okay, here is the word of God, and this passages might not sound like good news. James 1:2-4 says, "Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing."

Let's look at that first phrase. It says "when trouble"--what does that "when" mean? Does it say if? Notice the word "if" is not in there. No, it says "when". It is inevitable, trouble will come. "when troubles come your way...when your faith is tested." What does trouble do for you? It causes you to be tested; It tests your faith by putting you in a situation where you have to trust God. Will you responding by trusting Him, or not? That is the test, and that is what is happening here. Are you going to trust God or not?

That word trouble there is translated as "trials" or "tribulations." In other words, we go through some tough times. God allows us to go through difficult times, and the reason he does so is you will not grow without them. Think about it. You grow whenever the pressures on. You grow more through failures and pressure than you do when it is not on you. Now, a lot of us say, "I voted for the comfortable life. I didn't vote for that trials and tribulations." But let me tell you, if you don't have any trials or any struggles, you will not grow. That's just the way it is. God is going to use these things to help us grow.

Romans 5:3-4 says, "Trouble produces patience, and patience produces character, and character produces hope." So, troubles, trials, tribulations are allowed into your life to produce patience, and patience produces character. God is building character in you.

God is more interested in your character than He is in your career. He is more interested in who you become than what you do. Your career is temporary, but your character lasts forever. I know that in the midst of it when things have fallen down upon us we are crying out, "Oh God!" and we are asking, "Why me Lord? What did I ever do? Why me Lord?"

In reality, God is not picking on you, He is just trying to help you grow. Every problem you face has a purpose, and it doesn't matter where the problem comes from. It may be a problem that you have created, or it may be a problem that Satan created for you. Or it may be a problem that you circumstances created. Regardless of the source of the problem, the truth is that God will use everything.

Romans 8:29 says that God planned from the very beginning that you would look like His son. Remember that? A lot of us don't realize that but before verse 29, there's verse 28. What does Romans 8:28 say? It says, "All things work together for good, for those who love the Lord, who are the called according to his purpose." God works in everything.

We are ready to embrace verse 29, which says that God wants us to look like Jesus, but we are not sure if we like verse 28. What is God going use to make me look like Jesus? Jesus went through it and you are not better than Him, are you? Look at this Mark 12: 32-34. It says that "they came to the garden called Gethsemane and Jesus said to His disciples sit here while I pray. And as He went to pray, distress and anguish came over Him. He said the sorrow in My heart is so great that it almost crushes me." Jesus knew sorrow. He knew pain. The bible prophesied that He would experience this, and he Did. Jesus felt it, and if Jesus felt it, guess what? You are going get to feel it as well.

Look at what Jesus said a few verses later in verse 36: "Everything is possible for You" (talking to God here), "Father, please take this cup of suffering away from Me. Yet I want your will, not Mine." I look at this and I see that It is okay to tell God that you do not like what is going on. "God this really stinks - I hate this!" I believe God likes your honesty; He likes your transparency, and He's okay with it. He is not going to say, "What is your problem? Just take it like a man."

God's not that way. When we cry out to God, God is there--He is waiting to hear from us. In fact, sometimes, the only times when we talk to Him is when we go through those times. If you talk to Him a little more often, then maybe....well, I won't go there, but you know where I am going to, right? The way that we get through the difficult time is to remind ourselves of what is ahead for us.

We know that God is going use those troubles. He is going to use those struggles to make us grow, because sometimes the only time you trust Him is when you have to. Sometimes we only trust God when we have no other source, no other recourse, except to trust him. God puts us in the position so that we will have faith. God wants us to grow in our faith, and the only way that we're going do it is when we're thrown into situations that demands us to have faith.

If we could do it ourselves, we'd do it wouldn't we? If we can get by without Him, we are going to. So God puts us in positions that we can't get by without Him, where we have no other recourse but to trust him. God wants us to grow. You are not going to grow without struggles, but what gets you through it is looking ahead. Remind yourself of the reward that is coming.

2 Corinthians 4:17 says "Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." Now, I know someone will say "'light and momentary troubles?' What is this 'light' stuff here? I don't think I have any of those light problems! Mine are all heavy." But in light of eternity, in comparison to eternity, they are light, because they are momentary, because they don't last forever. I know in the middle of it, if feels like it is lasting forever, doesn't it?

Some of you ladies know, whenever you are having that baby, it feels like it is going to last forever. You may thing to yourself, "I'm always going be this way; I'm always going to be pregnant." Then, in the midst of having this baby, it feels like, "Where's the end?" But the end does come. Everything you face here is only temporary, but what's it building for you? God is building an eternal glory that outweighs them all. Keep your eyes on that.

God is going to use trouble to teach us how to trust Him. but He is also going use temptations to teach us to obey Him. You see, troubles are those things God allows or even may design in order to get us to the place to begin to trust Him and grow in faith in Him.