Is God shaping you?

Dr. Gary Howard is one of our Sunday school teachers and currently teaches our Wednesday night Bible study. Recently, Gary did a lesson from Hebrews 11 and Genesis 22 on the trail of faith in the life of Abraham. Among many great points he made, one statement spoke volumes of encouragement to me- “Where there is true faith in God, that faith will be tested!” He demonstrated from selected passages how as our faith grows it is tested.

It got me to thinking- should we not tell this to a new believer and tell him or her early? Should we not explain that Christian growth means trails? However, think of how that sounds. “Hey, it is great that you are a Christian now. I am so glad that you have been saved and now belong to Jesus. Now, God wants you to grow in your Christian faith. He wants you to mature by spending time with Him. Read your Bible, pray, get involved in a Bible teaching church, find your place in Christian service. Doing these things are ways that can help you grow. Oh yes, one more thing, the more you grow, the more trials you will have.”

Yet, the trials are the means of revealing the genuineness of our faith and of showing to a watching world that God’s grace preserves us through hard times. So, yes, we have to explain to a new convert that trials are sure to come. To do otherwise is to lead a baby Christian down a disappointing path.

How about you? Are you facing some perplexing and uncomfortable circumstance in your life? Perhaps God is using this difficult experience to chisel away in your life to shape you more for His purposes.

A story I read once illustrates this shaping process of trials. One day a man who had experienced much loss in his life came upon some men who were doing the stone work on a church building. One of those men was skillfully crafting a triangular piece of rock. Not seeing where that piece of rock would fit, the man asked, “Where are you going to put that?” The stone mason pointed towards the top of the building, and said, “See that little opening near the sphere? There’s where it goes. I’m shaping it down here, so it will fit up there.”

Is God shaping you? Is He chiseling you? Know that with each ‘blow’ God is working in love to fit us for His purposes here and to wean us from this world so that we anticipate the beauty of eternal life with Him.