God is Refining You

There are seasons of waiting, times when we’re not seeing any progress. We have to endure and do the right thing when nothing is changing. Pass those tests. But remember, as God carries you, you’re also going to come into these moments of favor where He catapults you ahead. You may have a situation now that you don’t see how it’s going to resolve. How you’re going to accomplish a dream, how you’re going to get well. It’s been so long. You don’t know what God is up to. What you think is going to take your whole lifetime, God’s going to do a quick work. It’s going to happen in a fraction of the time.

One time I had a meeting at the church.
And at that time, it was a 30 minute drive from my house.
I left a little bit late, but I knew if I didn’t hit any traffic, I would get there right on time.
I prayed for favor. Lord, thank you for making my crooked places straight.
There was a light leaving my neighborhood in three years, I had never seen it red.
It was always green, but right when I got to the intersection, it turned red. It was the strangest thing.
I got on the freeway and took off, praying that god would give me discernment to know which hill the policeman would be sitting over.
That was doing fine. Still had time to make it, then the traffic started slowing down.
As it got slower, my blood pressure went higher and higher, slowed down all the way to twenty miles an hour.
Was never that slow at that time of day, and I was frustrated.
The lane next to me was going a little faster.
I tried to get over, but nobody would let me in.
I waved, smiled, blue kisses, held up a 20, but nothing. Finally, someone paused and let me in.
Oh, thank god. I got over.
Right when I did that lane stop, I sat there and watched the lane I was in, passed me by.
I was so stressed. I just knew that was the enemy attacking me making me lame.
Now I realized that was god attacking my impatience.
That was god allowing me to be in an uncomfortable situation, to bring delight impurities in my character.
It didn’t happen overnight, but I started dealing with it. Ruling over my emotions, not letting that upset me.
Now I’ve learned to stay in peace, that god’s ordering my steps, that I’m at the right place at the right time.
Are you trying to pray away what god is wanting to use to refine you?
Instead of trying to change everything, why don’t you pray god, help me to change, help me to come up higher.
To be more patient, to overlook the offense, to not be jealous, to not let other people steal my joy.
Sometimes the test is to be good to someone that’s not being good to you.
It’s easy to treat people the way they treat us. They’re rude to us.
We’re gonna be rude to them. They put us down. We’re gonna put them down.
They stabbed me in the back at work. I’m gonna get revenge.
But if you’re going to reach your destiny, you have to be the bigger person.
Let god fight your battles. If you sink down to their level, get baited into conflict, revengeful, paying people back, then god can’t trust you with more influence.
That’s a test. Prove to god that you’ll stay on the high road, be an eagle and rise above it.
This is what David did he was one of king Saul’s main armor bearers.
When Saul wasn’t feeling well, David would come in and play the harp, and Saul would get better.
Saul was jealous of David. He could see the favor on his life.
And instead of being happy for him, he let that jealousy get stronger and stronger. Made him bitter toward David.
One day, while David was playing the harp, being good to Saul, saw through a spear and barely missed David, Here, David was doing the right thing, trying to help Saul, the salt was trying to kill him.
David could have fought back, tried to get even, but he knew Saul had been anointed king.
He respected the authority he was under, so he ran in the desert. Saul came chasing after him.
At one point, David found Saul and all of his men asleep.
It was David’s big chance to get even, to pay him back In one moment, he could take Saul out, but he wouldn’t do it.
When Saul found out how David spared his life, he wept.
Said David, you’re a better man than me.
The reason god could trust David was so much influence, honor, resources, is he kept passing the task.
All these times, he was under great pressure, where he could have done what he felt like, toll saw off, got revenge, made his life miserable.
David wouldn’t do it. He took the high road. He let god fight his battles.
He was kind to someone that wasn’t kind to him.
When you treat people right that don’t treat you right, you’re proving to god that you can handle more influence, more responsibility.
This is a major test because most of us will be good to people that are good to us.
But to go where god wants you to go, you have to be good to people that are not good to people back, but you stay in peace, you’re gonna see god’s favor and blessing in great ways.
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