Blooming Through Adversity

What does one do when the troubles and trials of life hit?  What is your response when the rain pours down and drenches your soul with tears? 

Is it to stay tightly closed up and withdrawn?  Do you separate yourself from the rest of the world and shut down? 

 It is so easy to respond this way, especially when the trials are coming from those around you.  So many refuse to open up to others through fear of rejection and hurt.

When the thin thread of hope is being plucked away, our response is to often just give up. To shut ourselves off from the rest of the world. To give up. To begin to even doubt if God is there or if He cares.

It can feel like He is far away in His heavens.  As if through some form of cruelty, He is taking pleasure in the the suffering and pain.

But the trials and troubles and rain can also wash away the very things that we use to keep God at arms length.  If we are truly seeking Him, often it is in the pouring rain we see His work the most.  In the reliance on Him, we grow and we change.  

If we remain faithful through the adversity, we can be transformed into a thing of beauty.  The rain often brings the most growth. 

 

As we soak up the Son, we can bloom through the adversity.  It is a choice.  A choice to close yourself off from God and the world, or to embrace the rain.  A choice to trust God in the downpour.  A choice to allow the Lord to use that soaking to make you bloom and blossom.

James 1:2-4 ~  

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