hardship

This morning I awoke after having a dream where I observed extreme hardship. In the dream my husband and I passed an open field which lay in a lower elevation than the road we were walking on. In this field were people and families who lived there, having lost their homes. They all had bunk beds, and a few belongings with them. Though the times were hard, the weather was temperate, and I was happy that the conditions were not too harsh. In fact, the people who had lost their homes were singing and talking pleasantly together, as if they were on a journey to another land. I remembered that, in earlier times, mid-westerners left their homes and came to California because a drought had caused their land to become a dust bowl. The people in my dream had a hope in what lay ahead of them, and they took no thought for what they left behind.

After awaking I heard the Lord say that it is important that we see Him in our circumstances, for hardship goes hand-in-hand with being a son of God. The 12th chapter of Hebrews tells us it is sent from God as discipline so that we can partake of His nature; holiness. Though hardship, like all discipline, is unpleasant, it will bear good fruit in us.

There are times when we discipline our own children, seeing the good that lies ahead and setting boundaries around their behavior so they won’t go the wrong way. As these children grow up they come to a place in their lives when we release them and our children will either accept or reject the ways we have taught them. The same principle holds true with us, as children of God. We can either believe that God has good for us when we suffer hardship, or we can become bitter and spiritually lame (Heb 12:14-15).

In the Old Testament there was a time of great hardship for the Jewish nation when God’s people were dispersed and no longer resided in the territory we know as Israel. Out of this hardship came a time of rebuilding and restoration under the guidance of Nehemiah and Ezra. God had disciplined Israel for her sins, and was leading her into the good He had always had in mind for her. Malachi was a contemporary of Nehemiah and in his prophecy we see the Lord dealing with two types of people; those who received God’s discipline, and those who, out of bitterness, rejected it.

Those people who did not receive God as good when times were harsh said harsh things about Him (Mal 3:13-14). They thought repentance and observation of God’s law was futile. In fact, they admired the prosperity of sinners. These people did not see God in their circumstances, and focused on their lack in comparison with the well-being of others.

The second type of people honored God and walked in the fear of the Lord. They did not focus on their lack, but on God’s good nature. When they fellowshipped together their words were so uplifting that God recorded them, and He accepted these people as His children (Mal 3:16-17). Though all the people of Israel had suffered the same circumstances, some people were formed into the image of holiness, and others were not.

Like God’s children of old, we too will receive hardships which mold our character. God will be “like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap,” (Mal 3:2) to us so that we might partake of His nature, and as legitimate children, partake of our inheritance. Though we feel enclosed by our circumstances there comes a time when those who revere God “will go out and leap like calves released from the stall,” (Mal 4:2). At times it is hard to see God in our circumstances. However, let us fellowship together like the people in my dream, affirming His goodness. God is holy and is working in our lives to bring us into His nature. Amen.