Talk to any faithful believer that has gone through a storm and just about all of them will tell you that it’s a sure sign a promotion and elevation is on its way. When you’re really going through it, you’re probably not thinking about what’s on the other side of the storm. You’re just trying to get through the pain of what you’re facing. You want the pain or difficulty to stop. It can take a toll on every aspect of our being, and just when we think things can’t get any worse, they do. We can get to a point where things are unraveling so fast that we’re just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Every human being understands that troubling situations occur in life, but God in no way causes them. When troubling situations do in fact happen, they remind us that we don’t know nearly as much as we think, we have no power of our own, and we are very definitely not in control. Any storm in life will teach us that we must lean on the strength of God in a greater way. Leaning on Him requires us to understand that He doesn’t punish us, and that if we have faith, He will take what the devil sent to destroy us and turn it around. He will use it to prepare us for the promotion that is sure to come.
The Apostle Paul said in Philippians 3:14(NLT), “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” God makes it a point to assure us that we will receive the prize even before we begin to press. He does this so that we will keep running the race and not give up before we finish. Be assured that God designed life to be a race and it is filled with promotions. We can also be confident that for each of us, He has appointed certain seasons for these promotions to occur. There should be no doubt in our minds that God is the One who sets the race, and He is the only One who can set the pace. If you and I are running too slow, we could miss what He has for us. Adam and Eve not only missed their promotion, but they completely messed up their ability to run the race. They did so to such an extent that God had to redeem us from the mess they made.
Disharmony, disunity, chaos, and confusion didn’t arrive on the scene until Adam and Eve bowed to the devil. They believed the lie the devil told them instead of obeying the Word that God had given them about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Their record of disobedience in Genesis 3 is our first visual of what it looks like to doubt God’s truth. Their disobedience also paints a picture for us of what happens after we make a wrong choice that doesn’t line up with what God says. A wrong choice leads to consequences we will not like.
Prior to their fall, Adam and Eve walked and talked with God daily. This was the kind of relationship He always wants with all His children. He wants there to be an open line of communication, because this is how a relationship can grow, and it is how intimacy in that relationship is developed. The marriage union that God setup demonstrates this very well. When a man and woman come together before God and learn to grow together in unity and intimacy, it teaches them many spiritual lessons that can help them in their relationship with the Father.
The unity in Christ that we share with each other as his body is extremely important to God, and it is a huge part of the race we’re to run. Ephesians 4:12-13 tells us that God’s plan is that believers in the Lord Jesus Christ will be built up with such spiritual maturity that they will look at each other and only see Christ. God has given us spiritually mature teachers to sharpen us so that we will then teach others to walk in Christ. We are to continue this practice of each one teach one until we all come together in the unity of faith in Christ. Our unity, one with another, is the sign that we have collectively and corporately reached the measure of the full and complete standard of Christ. So, unity is the benchmark God is looking for. Marriage and family can be very instructive instruments by which God teaches us His plan for our unity in Christ.
God designed life in such a way that it moves according to His timetable. People today are walking around with a tremendous amount of fear, and many believers are helping to spread this fear. They are talking doom and gloom. Because of the frivolity and vacillation of our behaviors and attitudes, people are behaving as if God has somehow lost control. Nothing could be further from the truth. Humans don’t control anything. God is in control forever and always. No, He is not moving us about like puppets. He doesn’t have to. Long before we arrived on the scene, He knew the mess we’d make, and He created us anyway. He is perfect in every way. He has woven the perfection of His Will in creation’s design. He is a redeeming God. He redeemed us through Christ after Adam’s and Eve’s fall, and He has demonstrated that His plan and His creation can withstand any folly, foolishness, and darkness of the human mind and heart.
Make no mistake, God is up to something. He is always and forever up to something good! We must allow always for the possibility that when a storm rages in the ocean of life, it doesn’t have to overtake us as the devil sends it to do. If we trust God with our whole hearts, our storms can strengthen us so we have the courage and agility to swim against the tide.
In Revelation 3:19(NLT), the Lord tells us, “I correct and discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference.” Life’s challenges tempt us to want to blame everything on Heavenly Father, and to even become angry at Him for the pain we are experiencing. This is exactly the outcome the devil wants us to have when he hurls his darts at us. We must not give him this satisfaction. Instead, we must be sold out on the reality that what the devil meant for bad, God can and will turn into our greatest good if we will place our faith and trust in Him.
Some of us have the wrong attitude about God’s goodness. We have assumed the worse and moved ourselves so far from His joy that our hearts can’t even feel it anymore. We can make a different choice. We can show God our commitment to learn the spiritual lesson our adversity teaches. Our adversity will show us a new side of God’s power, love, and strength. It will also show us that our allegiance to walk with Christ and to study God’s Word must be tightened. We must gain a greater discipline to the things of God and understand that even though life can be very challenging, nothing is too big for Him to handle. He is helping and strengthening us, so that we can move to the next level of faith and believing and show others how to do the same.■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
“Promotion Is Coming!” written by Reverend Fran Mack, edited by Kim Times, for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2020. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! Sundie Morning Sistas is dedicated to spiritual inspiration and encouragement through the Word of God.