Photo by Manoj Kulkarni on Unsplash

“The Lord is working in your life.”

It’s a famous phrase. And if you’re anything like me you have heard it many times. Maybe you have said it to others and others may have said it to you. 

But if I’m honest it’s a phrase that until recently I didn’t really like too much… Or I only really wanted to hear in certain circumstances. 

When things are going great it’s easy to see God working all things out. It’s easy to see His hand guiding, creating and establishing everything. 

However, I have doubted the idea that God would be working in my life amidst difficulty. When things are not going so great and we encounter setbacks, disappointments or what appear to be failures, how is God at work? What is He doing and how can it be good?

But the story of Christianity is the story of a God who is at work amidst the wandering, the darkness and the struggle. He works in all circumstances to bring us to the dawn of a new day. 

One story that comes to mind from Scripture is the desert wanderings of the Israelites. The story begins in Exodus with the people of God being miraculously freed through the Red Sea and receiving the Ten Commandments. But then in the Book of Numbers, we hear they wandered in the desert for forty years. Forty years!

God brings His people through the desert on their way to the Promised Land. It is in this time of desert wandering that the Israelites learn to trust in God and receive His blessing.

“And you shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments, or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know; that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but that man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8:2-3).

Jesus also experienced a time of trial, temptation and testing in the desert to receive His mission: to die for our salvation.

We would never read these stories and say God is not working. Our desert wanderings, setbacks and disappointments are still part of the plan of God. These times of purification are bringing us to the Promised Land. It is these experiences that equip us with the blessing of God and the armour of holiness to fulfil our mission. 

The concluding part to an evening prayer recently said, 

“God our Father,
the contradiction of the cross
proclaims your infinite wisdom.
Help us to see that the glory of your Son
is revealed in the suffering he freely accepted.”

So ultimately, God being at work in our lives is a testimony to the reality of a God who is alive, active and present—a God who is doing great work in each of our lives. Great work that is accomplished through the mystery of the cross.

Patrick is a beloved son of the Father who desires to use his gifts to build up the Kingdom of God. You can read more of his writing on his blog.