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Surviving the Storms of
Correction and Perfection

Life is a journey that begins the moment we are conceived in our mothers womb and continues until the day that we draw our last breath and take the mystical journey through the veil into eternity. A lot happens on our journey. The record of our life reveals a history of both adventure and misadventure. All of us, at one time or another, find ourselves facing things that are difficult to deal with. Decisions made by others, choices that we’ve made, and even the Providential guiding hand of God have an effect upon us.

More often than not we are able to coast through life feeling little more than a few bumps and bounces that mildly test our personal shock absorbers. But occasionally we find ourselves feeling overwhelmed by the circumstances that we find ourselves in. We feel even more overwhelmed when we realize that our turbulent circumstances have been created by our own lack of discernment and the personal choices we’ve made. Particularly disconcerting are those situations we’ve created by our own attitudes and actions that negatively affect and inflict injury, whether emotional, spiritual, or physical, upon others.

It’s important for us to understand, even in the midst of our worst decision making processes, that God is at work in our lives attempting to bring us into a more perfect understanding and commitment to His will in our lives. It’s also important to realize that His will for us is not to be found someplace afar off. His will for us is to be found right now in the present moment in which we live. Once we discover God’s will in the "right now", we can then grow ahead and onward in His will as He leads us throughout the remainder of our lives.

Storms come. We create some of them by our own attitudes and actions while others find their source in the attitudes and actions of those around us. Viewed merely with earthly eyes and felt with soulish emotions, these storms can cause us to become inwardly embittered and calloused. When seen from a heavenly perspective and felt within our spiritual being, they become opportunities that God uses to correct our often misdirected courses in life while molding us more perfectly into the people that He desires us to be.

Here are five points to take into consideration while facing the storms of correction and perfection regardless of the ferocity and duration of the storm.

1. He Brought Me Here.

This present moment, even though it may be fraught with personal pain and difficulty, is the precise place of crisis where God desires to begin his healing and restorative work in our lives. No. He’s not the one responsible for the trails of tragedy and wakes of devastation that we can so easily leave behind as we pick and choose our way through life. God is not the author of evil. Nor does He devise evil plans. But it is true that God will use these as entrance points where He works in our lives.

Look at Romans 8:28. The Word tells us "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose."

Look at James 1:13-15. Here the Word tells us "No one, when tempted, should say, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one. But one is tempted by one’s own desire, being lured and enticed by it; then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death."

2. He Is Praying For Me.

Prayer is an extremely important and positive force and it has often been said that prayer changes things. Our own prayer life can easily be neglected. Sometimes our own emotions, lack of understanding of the goodness and graciousness of God, and feelings of guilt make us feel inadequate and unable to pray. But, in spite of our own foolishness, the Resurrected and Glorified Christ perpetually prays for us as one of His heavenly works. That’s good to know.

Look at Hebrews 7:25. The Word of God says, "Consequently he is able for all time to save those who approach God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them."

Look also at 1 John 1:1-2. Here the Word of God says, "My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world."

3. He Will Come To Me.

It’s important for us to realize that each of us can have personal heavenly visitations. These occur in a number of ways depending upon our individual need and willingness to receive. Often heavenly visits come and go unobserved because our minds are so occupied with our own selfish thoughts or our lives are so busily concerned with routines and occupations. But it is God’s desire to meet us where we are and to bring hope, health, encouragement, forgiveness, and much more into our lives. He wants us to know Him.

Look at the last sentence of the Matthew 28:20. The Word says, "And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

Look also at Revelation 3:20. Here the Word says, "Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me."

4. He Will Help Me Grow.

Growth is never easy for us because it involves change. It’s easy to compile a library of knowledge in our heads. The world we live in is constantly pumping messages into our minds and not all of these messages are spiritually, emotionally, or physically helpful. Undoing warped and damaging habits and lifestyles is often a long and lengthy process that involves changing the way we think about ourselves and others. It involves changing the way we think about God and His will for our lives.

Spiritual growth involves realizing that we have sinned and that our sin separates us from God and His will for our lives. Repentance is almost a forgotten word in our vocabularies and one that needs to be retrieved from our inactive file. True spiritual health is not possible and can never become a reality without true repentance.

And what is repentance? Repentance is a process that begins when we consider our own sinful patterns of behavior, become disgusted at our sin and the fruit of our sin, recognize the Son of God dying a brutal death by Crucifiction for our personal sins while praying to the Father to forgives us our sins, and then surrender ourselves, sin and all, to Him, and begin living our lives in accordance with His will for us.

It is here in this realm of repentant living that we are able to receive from Him the tools and the tutelage that we need in order to grow into spiritually healthy human beings.

Look at 2 Peter 3:18. The Word says, "But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity."

Also look at Ephesians 4:15. Here the Word says, "But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ."

5. He Will See Me Through.

It’s easy at times to feel like Simon Peter on the occasion when he stepped out of the boat and was walking on the water toward Jesus. All of a sudden, in the midst of a moment of great faith, the sight of the waves and the sounds of the wind overpower us and we find ourselves in the next moment being tossed about in the wash of an angry storm that threatens to destroy us.

God’s love is a constant. It never changes. Yes. We can walk away from God and from His will for our lives but that doesn’t change the fact of His eternal love for us. God will even allow us to wander off His chosen pathway where we find ourselves scraped and bruised by the harsh circumstances that our own choices bring upon us. The pain and grief of our bad choices should cause us, like the prodigal son that traded the good life of his fathers home for an empty stomach in a pigsty filled with muck and hogs, to make our way back to our Father who is always waiting with open arms for us to return.

Not only so, but while we are out and about on our selfish wanderings, He will continually find ways to touch our hearts to remind us of His love and desire for us.

Look at Romans 8:38-39. The Word says, "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus."

Also look at 2 Timothy 2:11-13. Here the Word says, "The saying is sure: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he will also deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful - for he cannot deny himself."

The storms of life are never something that we enjoy going through. Especially when we realize our own personal responsibility in creating them. But the good news is that God is able to take things that look tragic and hopeless and turn them into tools that He uses to correct and perfect us. If that involves a season of discipline and chastening, so be it. The end result will be for our good and the glory of God. Hebrews 11:5 says, "And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as children - My child, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, or lose heart when you are punished by him; for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves, and chastises every child whom he accepts."