Preparing Us for Something
What is God training you for?
Life is hard, but you don’t need me to tell you that. Obstacles come, things happen, stuff falls apart. Questions like, “why me?” and, “what is God doing?” are easy to ask.
There’s a question that inspires me in these moments. A re-phrasing and a shift of perspective that gives me some clarity and helps me in the midst of hard times. It’s a simple question, but a biblical one: “What is God preparing me for?”
God is the great Orchestrator of this thing we call reality. Especially if we are His children, we can look to Him with trust even during life’s hardest moments, believing that there is something glorious coming around the corner that we can’t see or imagine.
In these moments, I can’t help but think about King David. Specifically, how God providentially prepared him to slay Goliath years before David ever knew who Goliath was.
Warriors aren’t created overnight. They’re built over years. About to face Goliath, David’s confidence came from the preparation God had providentially provided for him in his vocation of yesteryear:
Then David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.”
And Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.”
But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep his father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it. Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.”
Moreover David said, “The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.”
And Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you!” (1 Samuel 17:32-37 NKJV)
Young David wasn't risking his life, fighting bears and lions thinking, “one day I am going to be a hero and the king of Israel because of this.” He thought he was just doing his job. God was preparing him for something greater.
God’s doing the same thing for us right now. In the mundane, in the difficult, in the impossible—we are being prepared. Speaking of the hope of the resurrection and the glorious resurrection body, Paul declares, “Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee” (2 Cor. 5:5).
Even our suffering is preparing us for the glory that waits for us in Christ: “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor. 4:18). The Greek word translated as “prepared” in 2 Corinthians 5:5 is the same word translated as “working for us” in 2 Corinthians 4:18. Our suffering is an investment; glory the dividends.
Life isn’t easy, but God is preparing us for something glorious—equipping us for life, ministry, and eternity.
Next time you are burdened, bored, or exhausted, have hope. God is training you for results you could never achieve on your own… lions and bears today; Goliaths tomorrow.