By Steven Temple

Guest Columnist

 

So many of us in this life feel like every time we take a step forward that we are knocked back two. It is a constant feeling of never getting to the place that we think we should be. In this fight, many times it wears us out to the point that we decide we will just give up and proclaim, I can’t ever win.

I have been there so many times in my life. Seems like each time that I think I am finally above the water, boom, another event happens and I am set back further than I began. We finally get to the place where we feel like we have a little breathing room and no sooner than we feel this, we have the wind knocked out of us.

No matter what avenue that we have this happen in our lives it is never easy. No doubt, the majority of us have experienced this one fashion or another in our lifetimes and others feel like it is a never ending story that sums up their lives. I just can’t win. I can’t ever win.

The Bible tells us in Isaiah 48:10, “I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.” God has seen the difficulties that we endure, the failures that we have, those errors that we have made, and still has chosen us despite it all. That in itself allows me to be able to sit back and be in awe of the goodness of God.

Even though my life isn’t totally put together and may look like a mess as others look upon me, God still has chosen me. Even when I may not fit the societal norms that are projected, God still has chosen me. When I may not be fit for anyone else’s club or group, The God of all still chooses me. What a remarkable thought.

We may not have the greatest story, the greatest looks, the best of all things, and we may seem like we are in the never ending downward spiral, God has seen it all, knows it all, and still chooses to say, yes, I chose you. God knows our best, He knows our worst, He knows our uprising, our downsitting, He knows our strengths, He knows our weaknesses, and still, He was willing to step into the furnace of our lives and choose us from the very pits of this life. What an amazing Savior He is.

When all others may have written you off, turned their backs on you, given up hope of any chance of your survival, God is willing to not only pull you from the furnace of life but He is also willing to stand in that furnace with you to let you know that He has chosen you. He will lead us safely in the direction that we must go in order to rise above those things that keep us down.

Through the furnace of affliction, God has chosen you. You may be dealing with a great loss, an addiction, money issues, work problems, frustrations of this life and those things within it today, I just want you to know that no matter how bad things may seem there is still the constant that God chooses you. In your agony, in your despair, nothing can be so great that you can not overcome nor feel the greatness of the love of God. No matter what you encounter, God has chosen you from the furnace of affliction that is in your life.

We may never see the day when everything is smooth sailing and all works out perfectly, but at the end of our life, none of those trials or setbacks will compare to knowing that God has chosen us. Today, you may be going through the hardest time of your life, you may feel alone, you may feel abandoned by your friends and your family, however, I want to remind you that through everything that you encounter and do, God will always choose you. He will walk through this furnace with you. Will you choose Him today?

Pastor Steven Temple is the Pastor of The Church On The Hill in Rose Hill, VA. You can reach Pastor Steven via email at: Pastor.Steven.Temple@gmail.com