There are times when situations can arrive to our lives that can be so threatening for our spiritual growth and development. Our faith is tested, our endurance is tested; but we don’t realize how we probably find ourselves in the perfect scenario for us to know God in ways we have never known Him before personally.
We say God is our deliverer; but how will you experience that if you don’t know what it is to be constrained? We say God is my justice; but how will you experience that if you don’t know what it is to be treated unfairly? We say God is my healer; but how will you experience that if you don’t know what it is to be injured?
There are battles that, inevitably, we will have to go through. And when we become injured during them, it becomes even more difficult to continue forward. Some of them can be so intense that, while in them, we might feel we are loosing —even though we are actually winning. Only thru faith and endurance we can complete our part while God takes care of His; He does fight for us.
Sometimes, we see God delivering us from the battle but still it doesn’t feel like we are really getting out of it. We see some results, we see some changes, we see some resolutions and yet we might see some other things that are still not looking nice.
We see the enemy is finally down. But then, we look around and everything looks like such a mess. We see the ashes and debris from everything that was burnt away and has fallen down. Inevitably also, you will remember the struggle, the pain and the anguish of the battle. But those ashes represent what had to be burnt away. They represent everything that was not right and had to come down.
At this moment, it is important to understand that God has not finished yet. The enemy has been defeated, but now it’s time for cleanup and restoration —and this might also take some time to achieve. While God does that, will you see the ashes and debris and remember the pain as if you were still in the battle? Or will you see them as the victory that God has given you to embrace the future and build something better and to conquer further?
So many times we make the mistake of assuming that God is going to deal with our problems in one simple magical way, were at once, everything is just going to go away. In reality, there might be so much to do, that it can be very complicated to do everything at once.
Now, while God gives you victory thru victory, little by little, will you celebrate them or feel bad about what still needs to be done? Sometimes, even though we have conquered part of the land, when there is still more that needs to be conquered, we might feel we have not conquered at all—since we have not seen the complete end result.
But, isn’t it better to use what we have conquered as a guarantee that we will also obtain what remains ahead? If God has brought us so far, we will also conquer with Him the rest.
Use the present victories as a promise that you will acquire also what still needs to be conquered. Remember the present victories with joy for what the Lord has done. Do not let the memory of the painful process of the battle obscure the glory of the victory that you have obtained with the Lord. Every day encourage yourself, remembering what God has already done and have faith that, in the same way you, will conquer with Him what still needs to be conquered.
