God Wants to Redeem You're Adversity

from In the Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, pages 73-74

I'm convinced that the people God uses most are often the people who have experienced the most adversity. That isn't necessarily what I want to write, and it isn't necessarily what you want to read, but it's true. Adversity can produce an increased capacity to serve God...

What pits have you fallen into? What lions have you encountered? What Giants have you faced? God wants to redeem the adversity you've experienced. He wants to recycle your adversity and turn it into a ministry.

I know so many people whose adversity has become their ministry. They go through a painful divorce or the death of a child or a destructive addiction, but God helps them climb out of the pit so they can help others in similar circumstances.

God is in the business of recycling our pain and using it for someone else's gain...

Now here is what you need to understand: If you don't turn your adversity into a ministry, then your pain remains your pain. But if you allow God to translate your adversity into a ministry, then your pain becomes someone else's gain.

I have a theory: The more problems you have, the more potential you have to help people.

One of the most paralyzing mistakes we make is thinking that our problems somehow disqualify us from being used by God. Let me just say it like it is: If you don't have any problems, you don't have any potential. Here's why. Your ability to help others heal is limited to where you've been wounded.