When despair comes, ask God, “What do you want me to learn from this experience? What is the lesson you are trying to teach me? Please, give me the insight I need to ‘get it.’”
When you ask this, be still, wait, and listen. Be patient—even when it’s the last thing you want to do. If you do, the lesson will come to you—not in a loud, bombastic way but gently. Your illumination will come from deep within. That’s the way God does it. Something will just click into place—something you never knew before. When that happens, you can transform your character and become a different person—a wiser person, a better person. The alternative is to dismiss the lesson, which means you’re destined to repeat it. There’s no getting around it.
A wise person listens—a stubborn person does not. Most people who are in recovery lack wisdom, which means they have to go through a world of pain before they learn what God intends for them to learn. When the pain becomes unbearable, you’ll be willing to listen. Until then, you will flounder.
The choice is yours— learn the lesson early or learn it later on, after you’ve been through many more painful experiences.
