Broken or Blessed?

 

By Andrea Merrell

 

My troubles turned out all for the best.

Psalm 119:71 MSG

 

 

“My life has been really hard. I’ve been through so much,” my friend said. “How could God allow all that stuff to happen to me? I feel crushed and hopeless.”

Another friend recounted many of her bad life experiences and told me how much she had grown through them. She was thankful.

One broken, one blessed.

Weighing the two conversations caused me to look back over my own life experiences, both good and bad. All the joy and all the pain. Thankfully, I can now see how God used those painful situations to change me.

The psalmist said, “My suffering was good for me, for it taught me to pay attention to your decrees” (Psalm 119:71 NLT). The Message translation puts it this way: “My troubles turned out all for the best.”

God doesn’t cause our pain, but He certainly uses it to teach, mold, and mature us. He doesn’t waste a single moment. He has helped me see how each experience I’ve gone through has shaped me into the person I am today. And … He’s still working on me.

I am truly blessed. How about you?

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