Last Sunday, I was talking to my youth about a couple of things and we got on the topic of “empathy” vs “sympathy.” I was thinking about that conversation just now and this thought came to mind. I pray it encourages you this morning.

We want God to only pour “good” things into us. Those things that make us happy and that are easy to bear.

That desire is shortsighted and overlooks the fact that our deepest burdens/moments of breaking equip us with a testimony that can empower someone’s breakthrough!

If you don’t get those good AND bad things poured into you–you won’t have anything to pour out. People aren’t just looking for someone that can “feel bad” for them, they need that person who understands the sting of defeat/discouragement, the pain of betrayl/failure, and the depth of sorrow/hurt.

It may not feel good, but God is equipping you for SO MUCH MORE! If you turn those broken places over, God will reveal their purpose to you. That’s my testimony. I see it every Sunday I share with my youth. In my day to day activities when a random exchange brings up a memory that no longer carries pain, but gives me an encouraging word to share.

Scriptures to meditate on:

2 Corinthians 4:15-18 ESV
For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.  So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

Genesis 50:20
As for you, you intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. .

Isaiah 55:9
My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
    “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine….”

Romans 8:31-39
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
    we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Isaiah 61:3
To all who mourn in Israel, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the LORD has planted for his own glory.

Philippians 3:7-14 ESV
But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

#PURPOSE #BeautyforAshes #allthingsworktogether