Stronger

For You, O God, have tested us;

You have refined us as silver is refined. Psalm 66:10

I run into more and more people who find a word, phrase or Bible verse that serves as a guidepost for the particular timeframe - be it a month, season, year or even life. In the past I have not really done this. However, at the beginning of 2018 God gave me the word “stronger” as the trail marker for this year. When I heard this word, it was meaningful to me, it resonated and I felt a peace about it. In other words, I knew exactly what it meant. 

I knew that I was to get stronger in every area of my life; study of the Word, physical fitness, diet, sleep, tasks at work, and everything. Stronger. With nine months of 2018 in the bag and three left on the calendar pages, it’s fun to look back and see where I’ve become stronger in my life. In many ways the strength has come through refinement. 

A common illustration for how God works in our life is refinement. Specifically precious metals. In the verst above, the metal is silver. The refining process removes impurities so that the finished product is pure and strong. 

At the beginning of the year one of the things the Lord had me do was disconnect from social media on a regular basis. So, I buried my Facebook icon deep into a folder on my phone so that I would no longer be tempted to launch the app and see what was going on in my network. Surprisingly, that created free time in my evenings, removed distractions during the work day and cut out the amount of junk I was taking in with my eyes. 

Shortly after cleansing myself of a regular Facebook routine, He had me stop browsing the internet on my phone. I didn’t spend much time browsing the internet - just a quick recap of the ballgame or a catch-up on local news. Regardless, He had me discontinue my random browsing of the internet. More time, fewer distractions. 

The result of not being on Facebook or browsing the internet is that I had more attention to give to my Erica, Nicole and Jonah when I get home from work. No longer would I sit on the couch browsing the internet. Instead I spent time on the floor playing cars or reading books. If it was Erica’s turn to do bedtime, I would spend my newly-found free time cleaning up the kitchen and living room so that she and I could have some quality conversation time before we turned in for the night. 

After developing new habits that didn’t have the internet or Facebook I was feeling pretty good about things. I was feeling stronger in a couple areas of my life. The refining process, though, keeps heat applied to continue to flush out impurities. It turns out I had some areas where I could grow even stronger. 

One morning during my morning prayer time I clearly heard the Lord say “stop drinking coffee.” GASP!! What? Surely I heard it wrong. What words rhyme with coffee, I thought?? That was it. Game over, turn in your Starbucks card here. Guess what followed? Five days of misery! I think people in the medical field call it withdrawals. Since then, mornings actually seem EASIER. Who would have thought. I wake up and I’m ready to go. I’m stronger sooner. 

There are a lot of other areas of my life that are getting stronger as well - I’ve been studying the Word of God more, my physical fitness activities are more frequent than in the past and as a ministry we are in a much stronger position than we were at the beginning of the year. Much stronger. 

God is always testing us in our lives for the purpose of making us stronger. For me “stronger” was the refinement but it only came after the testing. Will you give up Facebook? Will you give up Internet? Will you give up coffee? Obedience paved the road I’m in a new location. 

Am I proposing to anyone who reads this that you, too should give up Facebook, the Internet or coffee? Absolutely NOT. What am proposing, however, is that you listen to what God is prompting you to do and act on it in obedience. Maybe He has a destination for you that better than where you are now. The risk for me to give up these things was small. The reward was great. I found the journey worth while. 

For You, O God, have tested us;

You have refined us as silver is refined. Psalm 66:10

Shawn