So that the Unsaved can see God's Glory and Power
Antoinette Deshaies
His Story Magazine Masterpiece September 2022
So that the Unsaved can see God's Glory and Power
I am sure you have heard that trials and tribulations are given to us by God to strengthen our faith in Him or for Him to use us in the future by helping someone else struggling with a similar situation. Though I would agree, there is yet another often forgotten reason why God allows trials and tribulations in our lives.
One story in the Bible that best demonstrates how God wants to use your experience right now, not just in the future, is the story of Moses. Moses is sent to deliver the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and ask Pharaoh to let God's people go. Pharaoh refuses. As a result, God chooses to send a series of plagues. Pharaoh is now going to go through some trials and tribulations. But what is most interesting to focus on is God’s response to Pharaoh as to why He sends them.
Exodus 9:14-16 God clearly states his purpose in bringing the plagues upon Pharaoh “For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. 15 For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. 16 But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.
Jumping ahead in the story, we witness the hearts of the Egyptians beginning to fear God as they urge the Israelites to leave and take whatever provisions they would need for the journey.
Followed by God leading His people to the Red Sea. The Israelites now find themselves backed in a corner between the Egyptian army and the Red Sea. They are terrified, crying out expecting to die and yet God chooses that moment to declare HIS glory and power to the entire nation of Israel and the surviving Egyptians one final time by parting the Red Sea so that they will believe in HIM.
What if your current trials and suffering is not about making you stronger or for a future ministry opportunity? What if, God wants to reveal His glory and power through you right now, where you are… to change the hearts of the unsaved around you. I personally experienced this during an illness that took a year to recover, where I can look back and see the ramifications it had on the unsaved around me watching my situation unfold.
When trials appear be comforted in knowing that God is using your trials to have an eternal effect on the unsaved. Moreover, that God’s glory shines the brightest when you trust Him to sustain you through it.
Exodus 9:14-16