Grace Throws Fastballs

Scarcity and trial are graces of God, it is good to be afflicted by God, because it means that He is healing you. Or to say it another way, God disciplines the one He loves.

If you are encountering trials, scarcities, emotionally, spiritually, and physically draining circumstances, and you're getting more and more fed up and bitter against everyone around you, grumbling that your husband is checked out and you just cleaned up how dare the kids make a big mess and you have to change that one's diaper and spank that one over there while the third one is singing Frozen at the top of their lungs and you haven't showered in a week, it's going to sound counterintuitive but everything is exactly as it should be.

God puts us in these demanding situations, He tests our faith and stretches us past our breaking point, not because He's observing from the corner with clipboard in hand ready to take note of any infraction. He does this because He wants to expose your sin so that He can heal you. Trials are not a pass/fail test. Trials are a tool that God uses to graciously sanctify us.

Think of it this way, when a coach throws fastballs so that his player can improve their swing, is he being unkind to the batter? Of course not, it wouldn't help the batter very much if all the coach ever served up was softballs. Likewise, God throws fastballs at us, not because He's mean, but because He's a good coach. He's not expecting you to hit a home run every time, but by His grace, the more you grow as a Christian, you will hit home runs more often and at a higher velocity.

It isn't very holy to chuck the bat in anger and storm off after a swing and a miss. It isn’t very holy to blame the coach for throwing too hard. Being a faithful mother/wife or a faithful father/husband doesn't mean hitting home runs every time. Faithfulness means being willing to swing again after whiffing it.

Now, as you can imagine, this means that the Christian life is hard. God is going to throw fastballs at you. So how should you respond? How should you respond to trials that push you past your breaking point? How should you respond to scarcity? The answer is that you should rejoice and give thanks.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."