A pastor encourages us: ‘Psychoanalyst Alfred Adler conducted a fascinating research project that popularised the theory of compensation. He studied art students and discovered that seventy per cent of them suffered from optical anomalies. He found degenerative traces in the ears of great composers like Mozart and Beethoven. And he cited numerous examples of other people who eventually became successful in the area of their greatest weakness. Adler believed that birth defects, poverty, illness, and negative circumstances often prove to be the springboard for success…God wants to recycle your adversity and turn it into a ministry. People 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. One of the most paralysing mistakes we make is thinking that our problems somehow disqualify us from being used by God…No one rolls out the red carpet and invites tragedy into their life, but our greatest gifts and passions are often the by-product of our worst tragedies and failures. Trials have a way of helping us rediscover our purpose in life.’ The problems God has brought you through become a platform upon which you can stand and minister to others. ‘Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God’ (2 Corinthians 1:3-4 NIV).

© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.