How One Word Changes Your Perspective in a Season of Difficulty

See, if we really believe that God loves us, that he is for us, that all things work together for our good, that he is busily taking all these events—even the painful ones—and using them redemptively to shape us into the image of Jesus…if that’s all true, then we can ask the “what” question.

• What is God teaching me?

• What is being exposed about my heart?

• What needs to change in my faith?

• What lie have I been believing?

These are the “what” questions. Now to be clear, the “what” questions do not come immediately. We need to sit in our pain. To process it. To lament over it. To grieve. And so start asking the “what” questions too early can do more harm than good, as if we are denying that what’s happening to us is real and that we are terribly sad because of it. But at some point, by God’s grace, shifting that one word can make a world of difference. It can move us into a posture of humility, accepting that God can take what is terrible and use it for good.

This is the “what” the “who” does during seasons of “why.”

This article originally appeared here and is used by permission.