It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
Hebrews 12:7 ESV
Some people see hardships, trials and setbacks as punishment for bad deeds or poor judgment. Sometimes, they are the result of bad deeds and poor judgments. But other times, they are just situations and circumstances meant to grow and develop your character.
I had the opportunity once to participate in a contract negotiation. For months the negotiation was going well. All the people involved were amicable and accommodating. All the issues that came up with contract negotiations were being made non-issues by answers God was providing. I had been following God’s lead and walking through doors that I believed God was opening. Then about 12 hours prior to the official signatures, the negotiation was abruptly ended with nobody signing the contract and everybody walking away from the table dissatisfied. I took this disappointment hard mentally and spiritually.
Is that a situation you can relate to? You’ve done everything in your power to make it work. You’ve relied on God and it seemed like He was providing. Then the rug was pulled from right underneath you. What do you do then? You endure.
Below, find two things you can do to endure and why it’s so important that we don’t allow our setbacks, trials, and hardships deter our faith in God.
Learn from the situation
Verse 12 in this chapter says, “Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees….” I think this is very important for us to note. This is actually a workout analogy that the author is making. The act of “lifting our drooping hands and strengthen our weak knees” is a metaphor to say get stronger from the situation.
A lot of times after a setback, we lack the courage to reflect and learn from the situation. We are too hurt and end up licking our wounds for way too long. But actually, we need to be learning from the situation. We have to examine the context and analyze the circumstances and learn why things didn’t work the way we imagined. When we actually learn from our setbacks, we are learning the lessons we needed to learn that God is teaching us through it. What we may learn is that we need to practice our faith in certain situations.
Apply the lessons learned to your future activities
When we continue reading in verse 13, the writer of Hebrews says, “… make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.” Now, the writer is making a metaphor toward clearing an area prior to you stepping in the area so you can avoid the same issues again and actually be healed. We learned our lessons from the situation that caused us hardship and trial. Now it’s time to apply those lessons so that we are not setback again by similar situations and circumstances. Don’t stop at just learning from a situation, apply what you learned the next time. Then you will see growth.
Why we can’t allow setbacks deter our faith in God
In the long run doing these two things will make us more holy and cause us to produce fruit aligned to God’s goodness (read verses 10 and 11 to understand that better). You and I are not complete. We are imperfect and constantly growing. We’re designed to continue to grow and learn and become more like our Father in heaven. We know that is our design because that is what God had said in the Bible. Moreover, the reason we have a helper in the Holy Spirit is because Jesus knew that our faith will be shaken when we experience setbacks.
Just like Jesus who faced the ultimate setback of death pushed forward into resurrection and sitting on the throne of heaven, we too have the chance to see our setbacks as the discipline we need to push forward for the work God wants to do through us.
Prayer: Father, the trial we are facing hurts. When we confront it, our egos scream in dissent. I pray that you heal our hurts, but more importantly that we can learn from our discipline and apply what we learned to the future situations that we will face. We pray that your fruit, the fruit you have been pruning us for can become manifest in our lives as a result of it. Let your glory shine and be upon us. In Jesus name. Amen.
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