"Is God Trying to Get Our Attention?"

1.        God uses problems to DIRECT you. Sometimes God must light a fire under you to get you moving. Problems often point us in a new direction and motivate us to change. Is God trying to get your attention?

"The blueness of a wound cleanses away evil: so do stripes the inward parts of the belly." - Proverbs 20:30

2.      God uses problems to INSPECT you. People are like tea bags...if you want to know what's inside them, just drop them into very hot water! Has God tested your faith with a problem? What do problems reveal about you?

"My brothers, count it all joy when you fall into various temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith works patience. " - James 1:2-3

3.     God uses problems to CORRECT you. Some lessons we learn only through pain and failure. It's likely that as a child your parents told you not to touch a hot stove. But you probably learned by being burned. Sometimes we only learn the value of something...health, money, a relationship... by losing it.

"It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn your statutes." - Psalm 119:71

4.      God uses problems to PROTECT you. A problem can be a blessing in disguise if it prevents you from being harmed by something more serious. Last year a friend was fired for refusing to do something unethical that his boss had asked him to do. His unemployment was a problem - but it saved him from being convicted and sent to prison a year later when management's actions were eventually discovered.

"But as for you, you thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good..." Genesis 50:20

5.      God uses problems to PERFECT you. Problems, when responded to correctly, are character builders. God is far more interested in your character than your comfort. Your relationship to God and your character are the only two things you're going to take with you into eternity.

"And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation works patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope makes not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." - Romans 5:3-5

Here's the point:

God is at work in your life - even when you do not recognize it or understand it. But it's much easier and more profitable when you cooperate with Him.