Pit + Cave = Purpose
If God shows you the process He was going to take you through to get to your ultimate purpose, there’s a chance you would tell God no. God often takes us through a process of redefining us because He defines our calling. We don’t like to take the test. Instead, we want the results. Nobody wants to experience multiple closed doors or constant rejections. We want life to be easy and pain-free. But refining periods in our lives can be a beautiful reminder of our need for dependence on God. What clouds our minds from seeing this truth is a consistent focus on the storm. Instead of fixing our eyes on Jesus, we fix them on the negative around us. How we respond to the challenging times in life is a testimony to our faith in God.
This is where I often fail.
I have learned recently that I fall victim too many times to letting my spiritual and physical life rely on my abilities rather than God’s. Because of this, a friend challenged me always to have a passage or two of Scripture that we can remind ourselves of, so we can always look to God’s faithfulness. Two have come to my mind: Joseph and David.
Joseph and David had callings on their lives given by the grace of God. Joseph and David were not perfect, but God chose them for things greater than themselves. Joseph had dreams, but none of them involved becoming second in command in Egypt. David was a shepherd boy and the youngest of his brothers. God chose David to be king, but the world would not have chosen someone like him.
A powerful truth to remember is that God has plans for you. God, through the prophet Jeremiah, told the nation of Israel in Jeremiah 29:11 that He had a plan for them. The principle is true for you today, and it was true for Joseph and David. But just because we are given gifts and a calling from God, it doesn’t mean there won’t be a refining process in our lives. For Joseph and David, their refining process took place in a pit and a cave, respectively. For Joseph, his brothers threw him into a pit and sold him into slavery. David spent much of his reign as the king of Israel hiding in a cave.
Today, we will have moments in our lives when we feel we are in a pit and a cave. We know God has good plans for us, but trusting in them may seem complicated. We pray, and things may feel as if they are getting worse. We will begin to ask what God is doing, if prayer works, and if God even cares about us. The key to remember in moments when you are in a pit or a cave is that there is a process and purpose to everything. Instead of asking why you are in these seasons in your life, ask what you can learn in these seasons. Instead of depending on your abilities, rely on God. While Joseph and David had pit and cave moments in life, they also saw God’s promises fulfilled. They saw God’s promises fulfilled not in their ways, but in ways far greater than you can imagine.
A breakthrough in your life is coming. It may not arrive within the timeframe you want. But when you get out of the pit or walk out of the cave, and you have relied on God the entire time like Joseph and David did, you will realize God was refining you. The enemy wants you to believe that there is nothing beyond the pit and cave moments in your life. God wants you to trust and depend on Him as He reveals that the pit and cave have a purpose.