What Troubles Reveal!
And Pharaoh said to his servants,
“Can we find such a one as this,
a man in whom is the Spirit of God?”
Genesis 41: 38
It has been said that difficulties don’t determine who we are.
Rather, they reveal who we are. Said another way, the same
heat that softens butter can make mud hard as a brick.
It all depends on how the thing being heated responds.
The same with the human heart. Difficulties can soften
one heart and harden another.
Joseph, in Egypt, and Daniel, in Babylon, both revealed their character to their
pagan masters. Their trials caused the presence of God to be manifested
through them. In New Testament, no one endured more difficulties over a long
time than the apostle Paul (2 Corinthians 6:3-10; 11:23-29). He described his
difficulties as “hard-pressed,” “perplexed,” “persecuted,” and “struck down.”
But never “crushed,” “in despair,” “forsaken,” or “destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9). He called his troubles “the dying of the Lord Jesus” so that “the life of Jesus also may be manifested in [his] body” (verse 10). His troubles revealed the “treasure” of Christ within (verse 7).
Troubles in life are normal (Job 5:7).
Our response will manifest Christ to
the world—or not.
"To become Christlike is the only thing
in the whole world worth caring for."
Henry Drummond
