Pastor Bill Hayden
Many successful individuals have their stories about how they had a hard life before they achieved measurable success. Especially, if you are a God-fearing person who believes in living a good life and that good things will ultimately happen to you.
Even when your life is messy and hard in your different seasons of growth, you learn to bear down in prayer. Situations will happen and it’s not the way you may think about God’s love and grace. Having so many difficulties can cause you to wonder if God is really for you and maybe you should be doing something else. You had imagined that your life would be easier, more predictable and more comfortable because you dedicated your life to be a child of God. Instead, the Bible reveals that struggles are a part of God’s plan for you. As a believer, you must never think that the hard things that you are going through are failures and are not part of the plan God made for your success. You must not buy into your feelings that God is not as trustworthy as you thought Him to be.
We live in a fallen world and God plans to use the difficulties to build our faith to complete His work in us for His glory. This means that those struggles and difficulties, which we see as interruptions or failures, are an important part of His plan. They cause us to cry out to Him for His grace to quickly release and revive us and He does deliver us in His time and not ours.
We discover that His grace which He so faithfully bestows upon us is not always pleasant. For His grace is working patience in our souls, which is needful in our conformity to His image and witness in the journey. If we were in control of our destiny there would be things and lessons that we would totally avoid. As we live with eternity in view, God’s grace comes to us in uncomfortable situations that His power is made greater in our weakness. You may be at a stage in life that was not a part of your plan but according to God’s plan it’s precisely where you need to be. The goal is to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ.
Philippians 2:13 ESV “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”
If you need friendship, you can find it in our Chapel. Please join us at the Villages Community Chapel in Cribari Auditorium, every Sunday at 10 a.m. to be encouraged over the Word and enjoy a cup of coffee and cookies with friends. The chapel is a place for needs to be met, faith to be affirmed and new friends to embrace.