I have had experiences in my life when someone was trying to communicate with me but because of a language barrier I struggled to understand what they were trying to say. Those moments are frustrating because I would have loved to answer their questions or given them more detailed information if I could have understood their request better. I am sure they were equally frustrated trying to find someone that they could communicate with clearly to get answers and direction.
One of the biggest keys to being able to communicate effectively is to be able to clearly understand what the other person is trying to say to you.
What does all of this have to do with my Perspective Project Posts??? Well, this is a beautiful perspective that God has been sharing with me over the last few days on our current struggles. So I am going to do my best to communicate it clearly with you today.
We know that God communicates his love for his children in many ways:
- Through his word
- Through his people
- Through our circumstances
- Through a message or teaching
- Through a voice that we hear
As his children we learn to recognize the voice or the actions of our Heavenly Father. Sometimes he communicates to us in ways that are crystal clear… no room to misunderstand. However, there are other times that his communication to us is confusing and we feel like there is a language barrier between us and God.
I am discovering that during times of struggle the language barrier feels great between God and I. Many days I struggle to understand his message and his methods. I have been praying for understanding in this area and recently he was faithful to help me by providing this golden nugget of perspective…
Often God uses the language of struggles to translate his personal love and compassion into our lives in a way that only we can understand.
Our hurts and our pains are so personal and specific to us and our situation that they are the most intimate form of communication from God. In our struggles he whispers to our hurting hearts that he is still here and he will never leave us. In our hard times he wraps us in his everlasting arms and carries us when we are out of strength. In our darkest of days he lovingly takes our hand and guides us step by step.
We often allow our struggles to harden our hearts and cloud our vision… by doing so we miss the beautiful translation of God’s promised presence in our pain. I am finding his fingerprints of love all over our struggle and the lessons that he is able to teach to me in these moments are so personal and so practical that even though I am hurting… I feel his love deeper and stronger than ever before.
I share this perspective with you today because in my own life it has made me stop looking for things to complain about but instead seek things that I could cling to.
It has been a powerful way for me to process the events of each day because I am pausing to allow him translate the difficulties into declarations of his promises and purposes. This perspective has allowed me to break the emotional cycle that was controlling my reactions because I now understand that I can’t react to a situation until the meaning is translated for me.
I seek him day by day – hour by hour – moment by moment for understanding and he is always faithful to translate it into words that I understand… “Trust me… I love you and I am working all things out to give you a future and a hope in me.”
I invite you to travel with me on this 40 day journey as I seek to find and share perspective in our pain. Connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, or by subscribing to the blog. Feel free to also catch up on the previous posts in this series by clicking here.
Today, I would love to hear your thoughts on how God translates our circumstances into statements of his love– please feel free to leave a comment below.
