We don’t get to choose life circumstances. However, by our responses we choose the outcome as far as our personal growth is concerned!
Learning from experience
Life experiences impact the depth of our personal faith in God.
I can become stronger in my faith through life challenges. Or, I can become bitter and angry at God.
We chose the outcome.
Strengthening our faith
So, we ask “What has made our/my faith stronger?”
Well, the short answer to the question, from Romans 5.3-5, is that life challenges are designed to build endurance. In turn, that endurance contributes to the growth in our spiritual and emotional character. The end point is hope, rather than hopelessness.
In Jeremiah 29.11 we see a similar progression.
There, God explains that life events are designed to produce in us peace and hope (“an expected end” tiqvah in Hebrew).
Similarly, in Proverbs 23.17-18 Solomon uses that same Hebrew word when discussing life’s “expectation” – that which we look forward to and find hope in.
Additionally, in 2 Corinthians 1.3-7, Paul shares from personal experience.
In fact, he says that challenging life events should produce in us the ability to share with and comfort others because of what we have learned through those events.
Then, at the end of that same letter, in 2 Corinthians 12.7-10 we learn that even when a situation is not “fixed” and does not go away, we are to rely of the sufficiency of God’s grace.
We choose the outcome!
I find it interesting that God is willing to risk our anger by placing us in high-stress situations.
But, why take the risk?
So we grow to the point that we can say the same thing Joseph said in Genesis 50.19-20:
“I am where God deliberately put me. What I’ve experienced in life God meant for good so I can now accomplish my life purpose.” (My paraphrase).
Coming out of life events – positive or negative – we should be careful to express gratitude toward God. Even when we struggle to answer life’s “Why” question!
A stronger faith
For me, “What has made (my) faith stronger?” is both the good and bad of a long life.
I have enjoyed God’s blessings in the form of good health, a loving family, financial stability, and clarity about life purpose.
As such, my faith has grown as I spend time in Bible study and prayer. Specifically, my focus for the past several years has been on personal growth through a detailed study of the Book of Proverbs.
Hence, faith and spiritual growth are closely linked together for me.
There’s an old saying, I think attributed to Charles Spurgeon, that says: “When I cannot see the hand of God on my life I can trust the heart of God for my life.” That quote, I think, is a great definition for an active faith.
Challenging circumstances
As expected, my (our) life has presented some serious challenges.
It’s important to remember that as a family challenges for one become stresses for others. For example, life challenges for us include the following.
1). Loss with our first pregnancy.
2). Emergency surgery during another pregnancy when the doctor told me before going into surgery that if there was trouble he would save the mom and not the unborn child.
3). Two different periods of financial stress where I was out of work and making do with several different part-time jobs at the same time.
4). Deaths in the family, such as loss of parents and a grandchild.
5). Loss of a house.
6). Being passed over several times for a promotion.
7). Being told “No” initially during an adoption process.
8). Some fairly intense times of pressure as a dean, associate dean, interim department chair, Chamber of Commerce Board chair, deacon chairman, and finance committee chairman – and surviving graduate school as a Ph.D. student.
9). Successfully going through the tenure process at two different universities.
Fact is, sometimes life is simply overwhelming!
Apply This Today!
Our personal faith can grow, or can dwindle, based on our responses to life circumstances.
Faith doesn’t mean perpetual joy.
A walk of faith in God is certainly a life lived outside a comfort zone!
Rather than ask WHY and get no answer, ask WHAT MUST I LEARN to be drawn into deeply enriching spiritual growth.