Sometimes we experience pain and we wonder, "Did I hear HIM correctly?" "Was I wrong?" "Maybe I didn't really hear from God at all." I would urge you to use caution with those kinds of thoughts. My thinking is that you heard from God perfectly, but He wanted you to learn something or grow in a particular area, and so He directed you to go in a certain direction.
In some respects, our "faith muscle" is much like the body's immune system. If we are never exposed to germs or bacteria in small doses, then when we're exposed in larger doses, our bodies will struggle to recover, if they are able to recover at all. I've seen many places, lately, that have replaced good, old-fashioned soap and water with hand sanitizer. I'm not attacking hand sanitizer, but I think we're not giving our God-designed bodies enough help or credit if we take away all the bacteria. I've even heard that some bacteria is actually good for you and you need it in order to survive. About a month ago, Jen Page, on the Morning Cruise, reported that kids who are exposed to dirt after scraping a knee are less likely to get infections and kids who play in the dirt or are exposed to it are less likely to develop asthma and allergies.
Our faith walk is like that, too. We need a little exposure to life's pain and pressure. It's actually faith building for us to have to walk through the tough times. It's easy to say you follow God when times are good. It's when times of testing come that our faith is stretched and our weaknesses are exposed. The only way to build up areas where we are weak is to be exposed, a little at a time, to things that will push us to grow and make us lean more on God. 2 Thessalonians 3:3 says that God will "strengthen and protect you from the evil one." It's likely that He's doing both at the same time. Perhaps there was something much worse that the devil wanted to do to you, but God protected you by steering you in this direction. God will protect you from harm, but may still expose you to small amounts of pain in order to move and shape you in the way He desires and deems best for your life.
It's easy to question what we heard and even easier to doubt. The challenge is to know, without a shadow of a doubt, that we heard from God, heard correctly, and still walk it out.
A "germie" is what I call a "germ." A germ, by definition is "something that serves as a source or initial stage for subsequent development." Just some thought-provoking thoughts.
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