What’s the Purpose of My Struggle?

[What’s the Purpose of My Struggle?]( Current Teaching Series [Time to Dream]( [Listen to Today's Broadcast]( [What’s the Purpose of My Struggle?]( By Rick Warren — 04/27/2022 [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Pinterest]( [Email]( “Sometimes it takes a painful experience to make us change our ways.” Proverbs 20:30 (GNT) Think of the biggest conflict or problem you’re facing right now. Without even knowing what it is, you can boil that problem down to two basic issues. First, will you obey God and do the right thing in this situation? And, second, will you trust God to take care of this situation? The root of so many problems is really your struggle with God. You want to be in control, you want to be God, you want to be the master of your faith, you want to be in charge, you want to call the shots. But you were never meant to be or do any of those things. So God uses a crisis in your life to force the issue. Do you ever feel that dealing with your problems is like a wrestling match? The objective of wrestling is to pin the opponent down on the mat until they finally say, “I give up. I surrender! You’re in control.” That’s what God was doing in his wrestling match with Jacob in the Old Testament. He was going to pin Jacob down until he surrendered and gave up control. At one point in their wrestling match, God wounded Jacob’s hip, an injury that would give him a lingering limp. Jacob was suddenly in a position of helplessness and in a situation where he couldn’t win. Even in the midst of your no-win situation, God is there. In fact, he often uses a crisis to get your attention. God whispers to you in your pleasure, but he shouts to you in your pain. The Bible says, “Sometimes it takes a painful experience to make us change our ways” (Proverbs 20:30 GNT). In other words, you don’t change when you see the light; you change when you feel the heat. God loves you the way you are, but he loves you too much to let you stay that way. When he makes you go through a wrestling match, he’s making you into who you were meant to be—more like Jesus Christ. He makes you weak so that you learn to depend on him for everything you need. You rarely change until your pain becomes greater than your fear of change. If you’re wrestling with God right now, surrender to him. Therein lies the only way forward on a path marked with spiritual growth and peace. [PLAY today’s audio teaching from Pastor Rick >>]( Talk It Over - Why does God want you to depend on him and not yourself? - In your current circumstances, what would surrendering to God look like? - In what painful experience is God trying to get your attention? The post [What’s the Purpose of My Struggle?]( appeared first on [Pastor Rick's Daily Hope](. [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Pinterest]( [Email]( [Get the Time to Dream Study Kit when you give a gift to support Daily Hope!]( God has BIG dreams for you, more wonderful than you can even imagine! But God-sized dreams are too big to fulfill on your own—you’ve got to trust him with everything you’ve got. That’s why Pastor Rick created a very special, 6-week video Bible study called, Time to Dream: Open Doors to Your Future. This study is designed to help you dream God-sized dreams and gain greater confidence to walk through the doors of opportunity God has for you. It’s perfect for your personal Bible study time and it can also be used with your small group! [LEARN MORE]( [Complete Audio Series (Purchase)]( Includes 3 full-length messages from Pastor Rick's series Time to Dream. [LEARN MORE]( [Series Summary]( Message 1: Dreaming the Future God Wants for You Message 2: Living God’s Dream Despite Past Poor Decisions Message 3: The Struggle Behind Every Dream [PLAY TODAY'S BROADCAST]( Pastor Rick Warren [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [Linkedin]( Enjoy today's devotional? Listen to Pastor Rick’s daily audio teaching at [PastorRick.com]( Did someone forward this devotional to you? [Subscribe to Pastor Rick Warren's Daily Devotional.]( As the founding pastor of Saddleback Church with his wife Kay, Dr. Rick Warren leads a 30,000-member congregation in California with campuses in major cities around the world. As an author, his book [The Purpose Driven Life]( is one of the best-selling nonfiction books in publishing history. It has been translated into 74 languages and sold more than 50 million copies in all formats. His book [The Purpose Driven Church]( was named one of the 100 Christian books that changed the century. Rick also founded [The PEACE Plan]( to address five global issues—spiritual emptiness, self-serving leadership, poverty, disease, and illiteracy—through the power of ordinary people in the local church. 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