{"id":4542,"date":"2021-08-16T08:30:05","date_gmt":"2021-08-16T16:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/?p=4542"},"modified":"2021-07-28T09:08:04","modified_gmt":"2021-07-28T17:08:04","slug":"our-trials-driving-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2021\/08\/our-trials-driving-us\/","title":{"rendered":"In Our Trials, God Is Driving Us Toward His Goodness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/p>\n

I love these thoughts from Abigail Dodds, the author of\u00a0(A)Typical Woman: Free, Whole, and Called in Christ<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and a regular contributor to\u00a0Desiring God<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"And Bree now discovered that he had not really been going as fast -- not quite as fast -- as he could.\"There\u2019s a scene in the\u00a0Chronicles of Narnia<\/em>\u00a0where the young Shasta and Aravis are being pursued through valleys and over ridges by wicked men. Their horses (Narnian talking horses) were running as fast as they could to get away\u2014or so they thought\u2014until the Great Lion also begins chasing them from close range. Suddenly they discover a new gear\u2014a speed that would have never been known apart from this particular terror.<\/p>\n

Have you learned this yet? That what you consider your limits aren\u2019t your limits? That you don\u2019t actually know what your limits are? We think we\u2019ve given our all, we think we have no more to give, but actually, we simply have never had our limits truly tested.<\/p>\n

I find great comfort in knowing that when my mind says, \u201cI can\u2019t do that\u2014it\u2019s beyond my limits\u2014I can\u2019t endure\u00a0that particular loss<\/em>, I can\u2019t live with\u00a0that particular trial<\/em>, I can\u2019t face\u00a0that certain outcome<\/em>, God is perfectly capable of applying the kind of pressure that will prove me wrong.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s very counterintuitive that God shows us that we most certainly\u00a0can<\/em>\u00a0do the thing we think we can\u2019t \u2014not merely by encouragement or pouring on the affirmation, but by bearing down and increasing the trial.<\/p>\n

Because here\u2019s the truth we miss: His pushing us past our limits is His grace to us just as much as His encouragements are. He\u2019s driving us toward His goodness. He\u2019s pressing us beyond ourselves to new vistas of Himself. And when we\u2019re under the pressure of the Great Lion, never, ever let yourself forget: all His paths are steadfast love. He cares for you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Joni Eareckson Tada writes in\u00a0When God Weeps<\/em>, \u201cBefore my paralysis, my hands reached for a lot of wrong things, and my feet took me into some bad places. After my paralysis, tempting choices were scaled down considerably. My particular affliction is divinely hand-tailored expressly for me. Nobody has to suffer \u2018transverse spinal lesion at the fourth-fifth cervical\u2019 exactly as I did to be conformed to his image.\u201d<\/p>\n

I say this in my book\u00a0If God Is Good<\/em>:<\/a><\/p>\n

God uses suffering to purge sin from our lives, strengthen our commitment to Him, force us to depend on His grace, bind us together with other believers, produce discernment, foster sensitivity, discipline our minds, impart wisdom, stretch our hope, cause us to know Christ better, make us long for truth, lead us to repentance of sin, teach us to give thanks in times of sorrow, increase our faith, and strengthen our character. And once He accomplishes such great things, often we can see that our suffering has been worth it.<\/p>\n

God doesn\u2019t simply want us to\u00a0feel\u00a0<\/em>good. He wants us to\u00a0be\u00a0<\/em>good. And very often, the road to\u00a0being\u00a0<\/em>good involves not\u00a0feeling\u00a0<\/em>good.<\/p>\n

Photo by\u00a0Philippe Oursel<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Unsplash<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love these thoughts from Abigail Dodds, the author of\u00a0(A)Typical Woman: Free, Whole, and Called in Christ\u00a0and a regular contributor to\u00a0Desiring God: There\u2019s a scene in the\u00a0Chronicles of Narnia\u00a0where the young Shasta and Aravis are being pursued through valleys and over ridges by wicked men. Their horses (Narnian talking horses) were running as fast as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2661,"featured_media":4546,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[4210,311,111,184,646,1842,1195,344,4207,71,192],"class_list":["post-4542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-suffering-and-evil","tag-chronicles-of-narnia","tag-goodness","tag-grace","tag-grief","tag-hurt","tag-limits","tag-loss","tag-pain","tag-stretched","tag-suffering","tag-trials"],"yoast_head":"\nIn Our Trials, God Is Driving Us Toward His Goodness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""There\u2019s a scene in the Chronicles of Narnia where the young Shasta and Aravis are being pursued through valleys and over ridges by wicked men. 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