Launchpads

God answers prayer. It would be pretty hard to believe in him if he didn’t. However I think there’s an aspect of prayer we tend to vastly overlook. It’s not just about getting our requests heard and answered. Sometimes God wants to answer our prayers by shifting our paradigm and refreshing our perspective. Prayer launches us into new ways of thinking about our situations.

We naturally want to be delivered from all our problems and trials, but we forget that God has a greater agenda. He doesn’t just want us to be happy. He wants us to become mature.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Trials = Joy?

It doesn’t really make any sense unless you revolutionize your perspective. What if you reevaluated the worst times in your life and your biggest crises of faith not as failures but as launchpads? Without them, you probably would not be where you are now.

Once I spent two months on another continent. It was unpleasant most of the time and I often questioned why I was there, but I was comforted knowing that God had called me to go. Whenever I think about that place, the memories still sting a bit. The pain isn’t really gone. However it was a launchpad for personal and spiritual growth. Several months after returning from that trip I started dating my future wife and found my career path. God used that tough time to mature me in ways that couldn’t have happened any other way.

I want to be complete. I want to be mature. But sometimes I don’t want to do the work to get there. If I see problems as mere problems, it’s going to be rough to make it through them. But if instead I see problems as God-ordained opportunities for my faith to be tested, I can experience the growth that God desires for me.

What if we prayed not simply for deliverance from difficult circumstances but also for fresh perspective?

What if instead of bowing to trials we asked God to fill us with wild undeserved joy?

It’s easier said than done. But while our circumstances may be completely out of control, we always have control over our attitude. If we can get our minds off of the pain and difficulty and onto God’s purposes, we will gain faith and launch ourselves toward spiritual maturity. God is performing a careful and wonderful work within our hearts. Your problems are launchpads. Pray for greater awareness of this spiritual reality.