Every Tuesday, The Bridge staff meets together. Our meetings include times of prayer and devotions. Many of us on staff are reading The Daily Walk Bibles so we have decided to base our staff devotions on those readings. Today's reading included a "My Daily Walk" section that states as follows, "Thirteen years of Joseph's life were spent in obscurity in Egypt. But they were not wasted years. God in his infinite wisdom knew that the man who emerged in Chapter 41 would be different from the man who was submerged in Chapter 37. It takes a world with trouble in it to train men and women for their high calling as children of God." The comment is then made that "it is possible to learn from an enemy things we can't learn from a friend."
For the next thirty minutes, we considered those staments. It was a great conversation as we shared things that we learned from those who have disagreed with us. It was interesting to hear the way that our growth and learning has come not only from the good times with our friends but also the challenging times with challenging people.
What do you think about this? Is it, in fact, possible to learn from an enemy things we can't learn from a friend? Has God used challenging people in your lives and their hurtful (but true) comments to shape and grow you? Is God using such people and circumstances now?
How?
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3 comments:
God has definitely been using negative comments to help me grow throughout the past 2 years. For me they've made me hone and focus exactly what God's vision is for me and exactly why what I do is beneficial regardless what others may say. They were painful while going through the process but now I stand completely convinced I'm doing EXACTLY what God has obviously designed for me to do.
Praise never hurts, but they still leave you with doubts. When you are challenged then you have to dig deep and get the questions in your heart/mind answered with clarity and focus.
I captured the following during one of my devotionals on this topic, I love the way it characterizes an answer to your question -
Joseph's character and self-control were tested over and over again for about 11 years as a slave. He stands as an example that God has a much greater reward to bestow upon His faithful servants than the elusive, soon-vanishing satisfactions of this world ... God's timing is always perfect even though it may appear that He is not in a hurry to fulfill His Word or deliver His servants from distress. Instead, He often allows much suffering and years of waiting to prepare the life of the one He has chosen.
I have found that I tend to do more talking in the presence of friends and others who were not a challenge to me or were very similar in thought. Challenging people have caused me to listen more, and, therefore, learn more. Maybe that's why God puts the challenging people in my path more so lately than in the past - trying to get me to listen and learn more...
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