Devotions from John Ortberg’s book, The Me I Want To Be

When adversity comes into our lives we can rise to the challenge and see abilities that have been hidden is us that would otherwise remain dormant.  We don’t really know what we are capable of until we have to cope.  Sometimes we lose everything but find out God is enough.  “God isn’t at work producing the circumstances you want. God is at work in bad circumstances producing the you He wants.”  Our circumstances – even the best of them – are temporary. But the person we become goes on forever.  If our focus is on the mountain we are driven by fear. But when our focus is on God, we are made alive by faith.  If we did not have the mountain, we would not know that faith could be in us!

Another benefit from adversity is that it deepens our friendships.  When we share our suffering and grief, we have a deeper appreciation for others and shared grief finds love.

Grief can also change our priorities about what really matters. When we go through suffering it can enable us to see the foolishness of chasing after temporal things and cause us to go toward the eternal.

God remains sovereign and can bring something good out of something bad.  As Julian of Norwich said, “He did not say, ’you shall know no storms, no travails, no disease,’. He said, ‘You shall not be overcome.’”