Flipping the Script on Hard Seasons

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Flipping the Script on Hard Seasons

RUTH CHOU SIMONS

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“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison …” 2 Corinthians 4:17 (ESV)

Recently, a massage therapist told me (after recognizing how immovable my shoulder was and how tense the base of my neck felt), “When you repeatedly operate out of alignment, you’re training your body to compensate for the injury with further damage.”

Upon further research, I found the spine can go out of alignment because the nervous system (brain and nerves) gets stuck in a stressed or tense state.

This sounds not unlike what can happen with our emotions and anxious thoughts. Fear and worry often get us so wound up and stressed that our thoughts begin to fall out of alignment with what God says is true.

If we’re going to realign the stories we tell ourselves with the true story of God’s Word, we have to know what He says about these right-now days of our lives. We’ll never flip the script on the stories we tell ourselves unless we’re given truer, more reliable stories to replace the ones we rehearse in our minds.

The truth about who God is and who we are in Him changes everything about how we think about “right now.”

Here’s what the Bible says about your “right now” and what it looks like to flip the script, aligning yourself with truth:

Your hard season is ultimately light and momentary.

“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison …” (2 Corinthians 4:17).

When Paul wrote this verse, he was preaching to his own heart, flipping the script on his circumstances! And in doing so, he was encouraging his readers and leading them back to the hope of the gospel.

Your hard season is refining you.

“… for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that … your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6-7, ESV).

The writer of this scripture, Peter, was helping believers rewrite the narrative of their situation to align with God’s plan for them and change the stories they were telling themselves about the difficult things they endured … for a little while.

Your hard season is producing endurance.

“… we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance …” (Romans 5:3, ESV).

Perhaps Paul, who wrote Romans, knew his readers would struggle to persevere — so he gave an alternative to floundering in suffering: reason for rejoicing.

Are you letting how you feel about your current season tell stories that drive you to depend on God or that drive you away from Him? Are the stories you’re repeating in your heart and mind informed by truth, God’s character, and who you are in Christ? If not, return to the Word of God, and see what He has to say about your present troubles.

Let’s begin to flip the script on our hard seasons, shall we?

Lord, help us align ourselves with what is true, believing that our “right now” circumstances are a powerful tool in Your hand. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.