EXPERIENCE

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

1-3The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

“Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.”

For me, that implies that there are NO WASTED motions in life and that we constantly need to be learning; learning from our success but also learning from our challenges and disappointments as well.

But as those in recovery, we tend to not handle those “experience moments” very well do we? 

We aren’t much for learning.  We want what we want. So we sulk. We complain. We get discouraged. Some of us even decide to "use" again which is the worst of all responses.

I bet I quote Maxwell at least once a day.  

He reminds that, “Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react.”  That is such a helpful phrase when we don’t get what we want or when GOD’s plan and our agenda perhaps don’t exactly align; those moments when we are getting some much needed “experience” perhaps.

It is in those moments that we have to trust the truth.  GOD is GOOD.  HE is always GOOD. And therefore ALL the things we EXPERIENCE are “good”.

Even the tough things.

Don’t believe me, read James 1.  Really want confirmation, read that familiar refrain from Romans 8:28 again.

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

But I get it. “Experience” is sometimes hard to swallow.

Last night one of our “new FREEDOM family” shared her journey of CHALLENGING “experience”; alcoholic family, losing the love of her life, her challenges with co-dependency, the pain of another’s addiction and a child with special needs.  And yet her FAITH was EVIDENT.  Her experience had DRAWN her closer to GOD and not further from Him.

She reminded all of us that GOD is FAITHFUL and HE CAN BE TRUSTED.

That reminded me of this from LEWIS,

“We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.”

Life can be painful.  

Our experiences can be challenging, but GOD’s best is always the promise.

Always.  Even when we don't agree.

 “We forget that God's primary goal is not changing our situations or relationships so that we can be happy, but changing us through our situations and relationships so that we will be holy.” ― Paul David Tripp

Proverbs 3:13 (AMP)

Happy (blessed, fortunate, enviable) is the man who finds skillful and godly Wisdom, and the man who gets understanding [drawing it forth from God's Word and life's experience).

So friends, there is no question life can be difficult at times. And all of us have “experiences” we wish we could have avoided.

But our job is to remember a couple of things. No experience is wasted in the grand plan of GOD.  GOD is ALWAYS good. GOD is forever faithful (1 Corinthians 1:9) and He can be trusted.

I pray today that you will EXPERIENCE GOD today as you experience life.

 

I love you all.

Freedom Church