IRRITATION!

Irritation! We all experience it at different levels in different circumstances at various times in our lives. How do we deal with a fleshly manifestation in a spiritual way? What does God require of me? Do I accept that Father permits it to do a work in me? Can any good really come out of what I deem an adverse situation? I have to settle it that God is in control and that He can use or change the situation, as He uses it to do His work in me, for His glory.

Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

Jesus is often referred to as “the Pearl of Great Price.” He is the One who paid the greatest price for mankind through His substitutionary death and resurrection. Remember and consider how a pearl is produced in the oyster: a grain of sand in the oyster’s shell causes an irritation. The oyster coats the irritation with a substance which eventually produces a pearl. Something beautiful is produced which had it’s origin in irritation. Selah!

2 Corinthians 12:7-9 bears record of the Apostle Paul’s “thorn in the flesh.” He sought the Lord three times to remove it from him. “And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

DON’T ASK GOD TO CHANGE YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES. HE SENT THEM TO CHANGE YOU!

God, in His great wisdom, did not remove the thorn from Paul’s life, because it was dealing with something in his life. It was used to manifest the strength and grace of God through him as he yielded and surrendered to God’s dealings in his circumstances. The life of the resurrected Christ flowed from the depths of his being in a demonstration of divine power. As it was for Paul, so it can be with us.

Have you read the popular caption: When life gives you lemons….make lemonade! We have a choice. Artificial sweeteners will not work, only the sweetener from a divine source – the Indwelling Christ! The end product of the irritations in my life is that Jesus will be seen in me. God is well able to change my circumstances in His perfect timing, but if He never does then HIS GRACE WILL BE SUFFICIENT FOR ME….because His word says so!

Surrender to God brings me to a place of peace and sweetness, even when my circumstances have not changed, because my heart has found it’s resting place in His will as I learn who God really is, and that He is who He says He is! He is not a puppet whose strings can be pulled by any man. He is Almighty God, holy, perfectly balanced, unchangeable and abounding in irrepressible love for us in His Fatherhood, and His ultimate desire – “to bring many sons to glory.”

Surrender to the Lord is a place where I do not know all the answers, but I can rest in the knowledge that He does. I was never meant to understand everything, but my lack is holy ground because when I surrender to Him, He gives me a peace that passes my understanding (Phil. 4:7), as I learn to trust the omniscient One with the unknown. In my yielding I learn the truth that nothing can separate me from the love of God. (Romans 8:35-39)

As I seek His face I realise that He really is ALL I need. All my needs are met in Him….I bow down and worship Him in the very place that once was a source of irritation to my flesh.