Trouble Can Be A Blessing

Jeremiah 24:6-7 -  I have sent them into captivity for their own good. I will see that they are well treated, and I will bring them back here again. I will build them up and not tear them down. I will plant them and not uproot them.  I will give them hearts that will recognize me as the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me wholeheartedly."

 

God had given Jeremiah a vision of two baskets of figs at the Temple doors.  One basket was the perfect ripeness…perfect fruit in every way. It was ready to nourish anyone who ate it.  The other basket was rotted….molded…and would make anyone sick that ate it.  God told him that these represented the two groups of people that said they followed God at that time.

 

It goes without saying that the rotten basket of figs represented the people that had left God’s care.  They knew who God was but did not follow his ways anymore.  They even ran to Egypt and hid from him.  God was going to let these leaders and all the people who had followed them to rot like those figs in their own bad decisions.

 

But the second basket of figs represented the people who had been taken into captivity in Babylon.  God allowed them to be strengthened in this time….to come to know him as a provider again.  He used a young man named Daniel to show how an unwavering faith…prayer…and following all the covenant rules that Moses had given them….could bring them through this time of hardship.

 

Trouble can be a blessing if we let it teach us how to be stronger….if we call on God to help us through it…to provide for us the things we need to strengthen us. Just like God used the time in Babylon to teach his people to follow him with their whole hearts…he can use our times of struggle to teach us to depend completely on him. Jesus told us himself in Matthew 22:37 the secret to an unwavering strength in him..  …. “Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'

 

Father…..thank you for the reminder that when I think I am in trouble…you are allowing something in my life to make me stronger in you. Forgive me for the times that I threw my hands up in despair and let go of your hands.  Help me to hold even tighter…like Daniel…and learn what you need me to learn from the struggle you have allowed in my life.  Teach me how to believe in you with all my heart and soul and mind.  Amen.