Enabled

 

Many people look back on their 20s as a time filled with fun memories, often considering it the best time of their lives. However, for me, my 20s were the most challenging and difficult years I've ever faced. Though I don't enjoy revisiting those years, I recently discovered that Jesus refers to them as my "blessed years."

I married young and set high expectations for what life should look like. Unfortunately, nothing went according to plan. My 20s became a season of one trial and difficulty after another. Things grew even harder when my mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer. I found myself pushed to my breaking point, feeling broken and in despair. 

In my brokenness and despair, I began to seek God for guidance and help. It was my need and struggles that made me hungry for Him. My difficult condition brought me closer to Him and fueled my hunger for His presence. During this challenging season, I asked Him to make Himself known to me, and that was when I began to hear His quiet voice in my spirit. He started to comfort me, fill me, and reveal truths about His kingdom.

Looking back, I realize that my circumstances and internal struggles created the perfect conditions for me to qualify for the Kingdom of God, as described by Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount.

…I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them. (John 6:65)

Enabling means making something possible by providing the necessary conditions for it to occur.

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness." (Matt. 5) He promised that the poor in spirit would inherit the kingdom, the mourners would be comforted, and the hungry would be filled. My experiences placed me exactly where I needed to be and enabled me to draw closer to Him.

 

"Man approaches God most nearly when he is, in one sense, least like God. For what can be more unlike than fullness and need, sovereignty and humility, righteousness and penitence, limitless power and a cry for help?"  C.S. Lewis