I think one of the biggest things that I am learning in this season is that my life is not my own.

It is easy to obey God when He asks me to do something that I want to do. But when He asks me to do something that requires a bit more patience or perseverance, I resist and if I am being honest, sometimes I get a bad attitude about it.

I listed some scenarios below to give you an idea of what I am talking about, and possible something you can relate to in your own life.

– Instead of a promotion, the Holy Spirit may ask you to stay in your current role for another 2 years because there are some leadership skills that he needs to grow in you.

– You want to move cities because you are bored and want something different, but the Holy Spirit wants you to manage and steward over what you have.

– You want to find new friendships and community, but the Holy Spirit wants you to exemplify holiness and be a light for the relationships you have.

– The Holy Spirit may be leading you to sacrifice a few things. You are hesitant to obey, but this is an opportunity for God to teach you self control and expose the idols on your heart.

The scenarios I shared above are opportunities for God to shape us into His character. I would even go further and consider them to be “God-things” too. We don’t see them as that because our mind is wired to only see a “God-thing” as a blessing or something that benefits us. But that’s not entirely true. The Christian walk is not always about YOUR blessing, or YOUR benefit, or even YOUR next opportunity. The Christian walk will challenge you, not make sense to you, and not always benefit you (go study Gal. 5.22-24 and Rom. 5.3-5).

Being a Christian is more than God blessing you. The entire Christian faith is about loosing our life to follow Christ (Matthew 16.24-26). Don’t get me wrong, God wants His children to live a prosperous life, but simultaneously He wants to challenge, strengthen, and push us to be more like Him. You may not understand what God is doing because you only see how it affects your circumstances, but God sees what it’s shaping within you.

Life is not all about you or your desires; and, you never know what God is using to mold you into what He needs you to be for the Kingdom. I just want to encourage you to see your situation in a different perspective, because it could possible be a “God-thing”.