5 Ways God Can Use Difficulty In Our Lives

My Keurig broke. A few years ago, a tantrum would have ensued at the thought of a delayed cup of coffee.

It’s not a secret, I wake slowly, and can rarely have full conversations before being caffinated.

But here, decads later, I calmly scoop out the wet grounds from my disfunctional machine, place them in my french press and pour in boiling water, stir, and let sit patiently…

Because I have learned, delayed gratification isn’t a cursing and there is more ways than one way to simmer a warm roasted drink.

It seems things are spinning at an ever increasing pace recently…

A once, easy cup of coffe, that used to start at one touch of a button is requiring more effort and intentionality, purpose and grace than ever before.

And could it be, God is teaching us things in the midst of our diffulty, we might not have learned if we hadn’t stepped into the storm?

1. Difficulties Shows Off God in All His Glory

Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission, is known for evangelizing thousands in China. He left a footprint, a ministry, that still reaps fruit today.

As a young person, Taylor once doubted that God existed.

Yet, today the effects of his work reaches far and wide, keeps rippling around the world, because this man saw difficulty not as a curse from God, but an opportunity God uses to make himself known.

Taylor describes, “All our difficulty are only platforms for the manifestation of His grace, power, & love.”

And what if that’s truth? What if diffucult was never intended to drown us, pull us under, but lift us up, glorifying Jesus through it all?

What if the very thing most of us fear is the exact same thing God uses to show off, lavishly in our lives?

What if our stumbling blocks are our future testimonies, our deficits just future demonstrations of God’s strength? Our struggles an asset not a deficit? God uses difficulty to demonstrate His divine purposes and plans in our lives?

Yet, in our society we can run from hard, see difficulty as a curse, instead of a blessing. We can forget the thousand different ways God is working in our storm.

But God often brought people to the water, took them out on boats, even walked on water, defying man’s limitations, surpassing human expectations.

Wind and waves, an empty catch, a lost direction…wasn’t something Jesus feared, but most worked and glorified himself in.

Like weight lifting, the muscle of our faith begins building when a little pressure or resistance are applied.

Yet, often we want to sit tight, safe, protected, unaffected, immoble, and then wonder why our faith isn’t growing, our life isn’t changing, or God doesn’t seem to be doing anything in and through us.

2. Difficulties Draw us Near Him

C.S. Lewis said, “God whispers in our joy, but shouts in our pain.” 

Not only can our difficulties glorify God and show Him off…they can also draw us closer to Jesus.

Like a child frightened of a storm drawing physically near a parent…we, as spiritual children, often draw near and can find comfort from our Father in the storm.

We bend our knee more willingly, cry out in prayer more frequently, and turn our spirits to listen to a God who is speaking to us constantly when difficulty comes.

Our own family has felt like it has been on a roller coaster recently. Like salty waves slapping against our chest, we make it over one crest, just to have an undercurrent pull us down again…over and over again.

Yet, through it all, it has driven us deeper….deeper into the heart of our Father, closer together as a couple, stronger to withstand, while trusting God is ever near…

3. Difficulty Can Draw Us Near Others

Difficulty can also do two things; it

can draw us near people or away from people.

When hardship comes we can hide or isolate. Fear, shame, guilt, pain can shrink us away from the fullness of God’s beauty that often blooms after pain.

But, if we are brave, truly brave, we will use wisdom and press towards people. I have not always done that. In fact, you can read post after post here about how many times I wanted to run from pain…

Still, I, we are learning…it is in hard times relationships can cement themselves together for a lifetime. Nothing binds people closer together like going through a seriously hard situation together.

4. Difficulty Can Mature Us In Ways We Often Do Not See Until Years Later

There was something about that Keurig this morning….as I carefully scooped out the wet coffee grounds from the k-cups (Filters you put in the coffee) then placed them in my French Press…

I took a step back.

Years ago, I would have flown off the handle at this handicap I used to depend on. I had goals,

expectations demands that I thought needed to be met, or I would get really frustrated.

But, getting tossed in the ocean, makes not having coffee look minor in retrospect. And when we step back from a hurricane, a sandstorm won’t faze us.

We grow stronger, learn we can endure, and trust more fully the One who is beside us. We grow in ways that might even shock us…and before you know it, we can look back and not even recognize the none-freeking-out, person in the mirror.

We grow. And that growth is exponential. Not because we “just got by” but because we held tight, pressed deeper, leaned in more fully to the One who walked with us in the depths of the night.

5. Difficulty Builds True Faith and Trust

I thought I had faith. Years ago, when my life was safe in a plastic bubble…I thought I was strong and trusting, faith-filled and could endure anything…

Until waves of hardship helped me recognize my weakness, and taught me to trust in The One I realized I hadn’t really been dependent on before this season.

I learned to pray in the hard times. Began to see God was more than fanciful stories, positive thoughts, or some self-induced faith that was conjured up by my own pride.

I saw God as big, high, wide, and deep. I realized He loved me, whether I failed or succeeded, in good choices or when my decisions were terrible or filled with insecurities.

Like a child tantruming who grew, I began to lean on The One who stood by my side. And in time, I realized He was not only wise, but was a God that could be trusted.

During difficulties we will find our faith increases, our trust, understanding and knowledge of God increases…if we turn to him in the hard.

My Keruig could have worked. Press a button. I could be drinking without any effort. But, that process of scooping out the coffee until the side of the k-cups were clean, that adding boiling water and simmering a dark cup of coffee was so much richer…tasted way more delicious.

I had to worked for it. And that made all the different. I had added boiling water and let the coffee sit in the flavor of a cup of coffee I would not just drink, but savor.

And what if we drew near God and others, let difficulty teach us, grow us in faith and trust…and stepped back and not run, but used difficulty as a platform to let God shine in power, grace, and love…

How might our lives change? How might we change…finding His glory manifest in the hard?