“Indeed it was for my peace
that I had great bitterness;
but you have lovingly delivered my soul
from the pit of corruption,
for you have cast all my sins
behind your back.”
Isaiah 38:17

The way things work in the economy of God is very different from the way humans try to accomplish things. There probably isn’t a counselor on earth who would prescribe bitterness as a remedy for a person’s predicament. But God does exactly that. He knows the end from the beginning and his understanding is enclothed in wisdom, and. He knows exactly how to order things to reach a certain goal, and sometimes suffering is the only way to get there.

One day in my prayer time, the Lord said to me, “I have tamed you as a man tames a wild horse.” That was a shocking statement until I thought it over and looked at what I was when I came to him and what he had produced in me since. Yes, I was that “wild horse,” steeped in pride and self-will. The remedy was great bitterness, and bitter it was. But it accomplished the purpose. Today I have peace.

Are you going through a hard time? Do you pray for your problem to go away? Are you asking God to fix it? It may be that he has a specific purpose for it, don’t try to pray it away.

Pray with me:

Father God, I have prayed that you fix my problem but there has been no answer from you. It never occurred to me that this problem may be something needed in my life. I repent of my resistance to your will. I trust you, and I know there is a very real purpose in all I experience. I surrender all to you. In Jesus’s Name, Amen.