“God is working in your life.”
Have you ever heard those words before?
Maybe you heard them from a trusted friend who was trying to offer you a word of encouragement. Maybe you heard a pastor say something similar in the context of our worship service or in the course of another conversation. Maybe you have said them to yourself in the midst of a difficult time or to someone else who you thought needed to hear that affirmation.
I’m guessing you’ve heard it before.
At the same time, I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that at some point in your life you have also wondered, “that sounds great, but could somebody please explain to me how God is currently at work in my life?”
What does it means to say, “God is working in your life,” when…
someone is grieving the loss of a parent, a spouse, a child, a close and dear friend…
When someone feels like they’ve just hit rock bottom because they recently lost their job, their house or their marriage…
When someone is feeling torn apart because of an addiction, a deep season of depression, or an internal struggle to find purpose and value in their life…
“What exactly is God doing?” they might ask… and “how exactly is God doing it?”
As a pastor, let me say, I think it’s a fair question, and it’s a question that deserves a careful response because how we answer that question speaks volumes to how we understand the movement of God in our world.
It reminds me of a phone call I received a little over ten years ago. I was on my first mission trip as a Youth Pastor. I was a few weeks away from my wedding, and the call came at the end of a very long day of work. It was one of my best friends calling to tell me that another dear friend of mine had been killed in a car accident earlier that day.
It was devastating. I could not believe it, and as you might expect, I was very soon overcome with emotion.
My pastor was on the trip with us [probably to make sure that everything went smoothly with the new guy!]. He had actually already gone to bed, but I went to wake him up to share the news. Over the course of the next several hours, he sat with me, he prayed for me and for my friend’s family. He shared my grief.
I don’t remember one word he shared, but I will never forget that he was there.
The next morning when all the kids were gathered at breakfast, my pastor shared the news with them. He sat two chairs in the middle of the room for my future bride and I to sit in and then he invited these kids that I was still just getting to know in my role as their youth pastor to surround us, to lay hands on us in our time of grief as he again prayed for us.
I don’t remember the words of that prayer, but I will never forget that they were there.
That experience reminds me still today of an important truth. Whenever we isolate ourselves from other people we cut ourselves off from one of the primary avenues God uses to work in our life. Often the question of “how” God is working in my life is answered by the simple presence of someone who cares enough to sit with me, to grieve with me, to care for me in my time of need. In that moment, in a supernatural way that is beyond explanation, the presence of Jesus is made known.
Isolation is an enemy of spiritual health because it closes one of the doors that God loves to use to enter our lives.
I hope today you will take a moment to consider again the question, how is God working in your life?
And when you do, perhaps take a moment to give God thanks for the people in your life that God is using in that work.