What Are You Made Of
Psalm 120:1 Amplified Bible
1IN MY distress I cried to the Lord, and He answered me.
My husband and I share words of encouragement and scriptures throughout our day as time permits. I am thankful for God instilling such a bond in us, that when adversity arises we have a pattern of behavior that reinforces the God in us and the good in us. As we have gone along things have happened and adversity has come up in our lives. From the outside trying to get in, or tragedy and unexpected circumstances that have arisen that have shaken us. One day during a time when he was encouraging me, he said a Pastor that He used to play for said to him, that adversity will define you. When I first heard what he was saying I heard with my natural ears and started to rebut by asking how adversity can define us, all it does is causes us discomfort. But then his words rang in my spirit and I began to understand, adversity and adverse times will cause what is in us to come out and show you exactly what or who us rely on for strength and what we are really made of.
What is really in us when adversity hits our lives? What comes out of us when someone has hurt us or has disappointed us or done something that has caused us to come face to face with adversity, discomfort and pain? In the midst of our struggle who is seen, or what is seen in us? Most of us have coping mechanisms and things that we do when pain and adversity come, but the question that I want to pose is, are these methods, based in whom we say we believe and who we say that we serve and represent? Many of us are fighting a supernatural or spiritual battle by natural means. Many of us are allowing emotion to cloud what we should be doing and how we should be reacting. Many of us are allowing us to get in the way and become the primary thing seen and heard instead of who we say we live for and serve. No, none of us are perfect and none of us have arrived, we all make mistakes, and use bad judgment as it concerns things, But are those bad decisions and choices a part of our daily routine or a part of how we choose to live? In my distress, stress anger, hurt, betrayal, being talked about, lied on and mislead, and misused and abused, who do I turn to and who do I turn into? When my father passed away, I was emotional, I was hurt and I was distressed. Although I was angry and most it at God for allowing it, I tried not to talk to God, but I found myself in tears before Him every day, because that was what was in me. You see the things that are deeply rooted will always be the things that surface when adversity and despair come calling.
What is our defense, offense, what is our strategic plan, what is in us, and pouring out of us? What are we saying and how are we living especially when all is not well? I love the Ford commercial that says that their trucks are built Ford tough. Ford has built a name and a brand by its toughness, what are we building our name and brand by? Timex could take a licking and keep on ticking, can we be in a pressure cooker, be in a place of adversity and pain and still stay focused enough for people to see the God of our salvation in us? Can God rely on us not to curse Him and die, when things get rough, or do we blow up at Him and those around us and show that what was is really in us and what is not so deeply rooted in us as we made it seem or we caused others to believe. I remember hearing some of the older Saints in my growing up say, “you better praise God, worship Him, pray and read your word while you can, because there may come a day when you can’t and you will need to rely upon what is in you.” For surely what is in us is what is our make up and ultimately will be what comes out of us under pressure in those days when most things are wrong and most people are treating us even more wrong. Will you call out to God or will you call out to man? Will the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart be acceptable in God’s sight or will they not even be acceptable in the sight of most because it is rooted in flesh and shaped in the emotion of the moment? What are we really made of? Only we and God really know, but it is bound to come out one day when adversity, pressure and pain come!
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