Have you ever looked back at your life or certain situations and thought, well, that was a waste of time? Or maybe, I would have been better off without that ever happening?
I have a few situations that come to mind as I ponder this. I find myself questioning why certain things happened and, if I'm being honest, sometimes thinking I would have been better off without them. Maybe I wouldn't have spent so much time, energy, or emotion on something that didn't turn out the way I hoped. Maybe I could have been further along, invested in something else, or simply avoided the disappointment altogether.
It's easy to look back on certain seasons and feel like we have nothing to show for them. We can become so focused on what we lost, what we invested, and what we wish we had done differently that we begin to label the entire experience as wasted time.
But what if we approached our circumstances with a different perspective?
Instead of viewing them as wasted time, what if we rested in the truth that God uses all things for our good and for His glory?
If we believe that to be true, then even our disappointments are not beyond His purpose. That doesn't mean every situation is good, that every outcome will be what we hoped for, or that we will always understand why something happened. But it does mean that nothing is outside of God's sovereignty or beyond His ability to use for our good!
This is hitting close to home in a lot of ways as I navigate situations of my own and look to encourage friends going through difficult circumstances. I came across one of my favorite passages of Scripture, one that holds the heart of Reverent Awe: Hebrews 12. I was especially encouraged by verses 7–13.
"It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed." Hebrews 12:7-13
As I sat with these verses, I was reminded that God doesn't waste our circumstances. He uses them to train us, refine us, and produce something far greater than what we might see in the moment. Let's break this down.
1. Designated Sons and Daughters (Verses 7–8)
Our identity. We belong to Him.
Hebrews 12 begins by reminding us of something foundational: we are sons and daughters of God. We belong to Him.
The passage speaks about discipline, and it is important to understand what that word means. Discipline is not simply punishment. It is training, instruction, correction, and guidance intended to develop character, produce growth, and cultivate obedience.
Think about the role of a loving earthly father. A father who cares for his children doesn't simply let them do whatever they want. He teaches them, corrects them, and guides them because he wants what is best for them.
“Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.” Proverbs 13:24
Discipline is not the absence of love. It is an expression of it.
How much more is this true of our heavenly Father? His discipline is rooted in His perfect love for us. He isn't distant, indifferent, or abandoning us. He is actively involved in our lives, caring enough to correct us and shape us.
Hebrews 12 reminds us that God's discipline is evidence of our belonging to Him. He is not treating us as strangers. He is dealing with us as His children.
I think this is an important truth to remember when we find ourselves in difficult circumstances. It can be easy to question God's goodness or even His presence when life doesn't look the way we thought it would. But our circumstances do not determine our identity. We are His!
Before we try to understand what God is doing in a particular season, we need to remember who we are. We are designated sons and daughters of the Most High King. We are loved, known, and cared for by our Father!
2. Disciplined for Eternal Purpose (Verses 9–10)
Our purpose. He is making us holy.
Hebrews 12:9–10 shifts our attention from our identity to the purpose behind God's discipline. Our earthly fathers disciplined us as they thought best, but our heavenly Father disciplines us for our good, that we may share in His holiness.
There is a difference between earthly discipline and the discipline of our heavenly Father. His is perfect. He sees what we cannot see, knows what we cannot know, and understands exactly what we need. His purpose is not temporary or limited to what we can see in front of us. It has eternal significance.
Sometimes God's discipline involves correcting our direction and revealing areas of our lives that do not align with His Word. Other times, it teaches us to trust Him when His answers, timing, or plans look different from what we had hoped for. He may lead us through circumstances we would never have chosen for ourselves, and we may not understand what He is doing until much later.
But we must be careful not to assume that every difficult circumstance is a consequence of something we have done. Not every disappointment is correction, and not every hardship is punishment. What we can know is that God is sovereign over every season and is able to use even the most difficult circumstances to accomplish His good purposes in us!
Verse 10 tells us that He disciplines us for our good, that we may share in His holiness. That is the purpose. Not simply to change our circumstances, make our lives easier, or give us the outcomes we want, but to make us more like Christ.
"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers." Romans 8:28-29
Verse 29 reminds us that God has predestined His people to be conformed to the image of His Son. What a gift it is to have a Father who is committed to making us more like Jesus! He sees beyond what we see. He knows what needs to be refined, what needs to grow, and what needs to change in us.
This gives us a different perspective when we look back on seasons we wish had gone differently. Maybe we don't understand why something happened. Maybe we wish we had made a different decision or had never invested so much of ourselves in something that didn't turn out as we hoped. But our Father is not limited by those circumstances, and He is not limited by our understanding of them.
We can trust that He is able to use even those seasons to draw us closer to Himself and shape us into the likeness of Jesus!
3. Devoted to Righteousness (Verses 11–13)
Our response. We pursue righteousness.
Hebrews 12:11–13 acknowledges something we all know to be true: discipline is not always pleasant. In fact, it can be painful. But the passage tells us that later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
I find the word later especially important here.
We live in a world that wants immediate results. We want answers now, clarity now, healing now, and growth that we can see and measure. But spiritual maturity doesn't always happen overnight. There is a process of being stretched, corrected, refined, and trained. Sometimes we don't recognize what God has been doing until we look back and see the fruit that has grown through it.
And sometimes we may not see the full fruit in this lifetime. Our responsibility is not to understand every detail of what God is doing, but to remain faithful to Him through it!
Are we willing to be trained? Are we willing to allow God to use our circumstances to produce something in us that is far more valuable than the outcome we originally wanted?
What if we became more devoted to righteousness and patient endurance? What if we began to see difficult seasons as opportunities to grow in holiness and become more like Jesus, rather than simply circumstances we need to get through?
The author of Hebrews goes on to encourage us to lift our drooping hands, strengthen our weak knees, and make straight paths for our feet. I love this imagery because it acknowledges that discipline can leave us feeling exhausted, discouraged, and weak. There are seasons when continuing forward in faith takes intentional effort.
If someone already has a weakened or injured leg, walking on uneven ground can make the injury worse. A straight, stable path gives that person a better opportunity to heal and continue forward.
There is a spiritual application here. We need to be intentional about the paths we walk. We cannot continue entertaining things, pursuing directions, or returning to patterns that hinder our growth and expect to become more like Christ. God calls us to walk in His ways, to turn away from what does not honor Him, and to pursue what is right.
His discipline should change the way we walk. It should deepen our devotion to His truth, strengthen our dependence on Him, and shape our lives to reflect His righteousness.
This doesn't mean we can control every circumstance or avoid every difficult path. It means that whatever season we find ourselves in, we can choose to respond in faith and continue walking with Him.
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6
We may not understand the road ahead, and we may not be able to make sense of everything behind us. But we can trust the One who is leading us. We can acknowledge Him in every season and remain devoted to walking in His ways.
Nothing Is Wasted
Friend, He uses all things for our good and for His glory.
I know you may feel like you are in the very center of a difficult situation, questioning why something happened or wishing things had turned out differently. Maybe you are still waiting for an answer, healing from a disappointment, or learning to surrender something you thought would look different.
Maybe you look back and wish you could get that time back. Maybe you wonder where you would be, what you would be doing, or who you would be if things had gone differently. Maybe you feel like you gave so much of yourself to something that ultimately didn't turn out the way you hoped.
But nothing is wasted in the hands of a sovereign God. Not the waiting, not the disappointment, not the refining, and not even the things we wish had happened differently.
May we be a people who endure, who submit to the loving discipline of our Father, and who remain devoted to pursuing righteousness. The goal was never simply to get through the season. It was to become more like Jesus through it!
If you are walking through a difficult season, leave a comment below and let us know how we can pray for you. You can also reach us via email at info@reverentawe.com.
God bless you!