What Is This Revealing in Me?

There are things we don’t know about ourselves until life gets hard.

We may think we are pretty patient until we have been waiting much longer than we expected. We may believe we trust God until something important feels uncertain. We may not realize how tightly we are holding onto a particular outcome until it looks as though things might turn out differently.

That doesn’t mean we were pretending before. Sometimes it simply takes pressure to bring something to the surface that we couldn’t see clearly before.

By the time Abraham reaches Moriah in Genesis 22, the test has brought him to a place where his trust in God is no longer just something he believes. It has become visible in the way he responds.

That makes me wonder whether one of the questions worth asking in our own difficult seasons is not only, God, when are You going to change this? but also, What is this revealing in me?

Scripture

“Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him,” said the angel, “for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from Me.”
— Genesis 22:12, BSB

Reflection

When we read the words “now I know,” it can sound as though God needed the test to find out what was in Abraham’s heart. But Scripture consistently presents God as already knowing us completely. He wasn’t learning something about Abraham that had previously been hidden from Him.

What had been inside Abraham was now being expressed through Abraham’s choice.

We see a similar idea in Deuteronomy 8, when Moses looks back on Israel’s years in the wilderness and explains that God used that season to test them and reveal what was in their hearts. The wilderness didn’t create everything that surfaced there. It exposed things that were already present.

Hard seasons can do that to us too.

When life is going the way we hoped, it can be fairly easy to believe that we trust God. Then something happens that we cannot fix, hurry, or control, and suddenly we begin seeing parts of ourselves that we hadn’t noticed before.

Maybe you realize how quickly fear takes over when you cannot predict what happens next. Maybe you discover that you have been depending on another person, financial security, a job, your health, or a certain future to make you feel safe. Maybe you find yourself frustrated with God because you had quietly assumed that trusting Him would keep certain things from happening.

Those discoveries can be uncomfortable, but they can also be incredibly important.

If something difficult reveals that I am trying to control everything, I now have something real to talk to Jesus about. If it exposes fear I have been carrying for years, I can finally bring that fear into the open. If I realize that I have tied God’s goodness to whether He gives me the outcome I want, He can begin teaching me something deeper about what His goodness actually means.

The goal is not to analyze ourselves until we find everything that is wrong with us. That can quickly turn into another kind of burden. The invitation is simply to become more honest.

Abraham had been learning to trust God for years, and his story included plenty of moments when he did not get it right. Genesis 22 did not erase that history. What we see on Moriah is a man whose relationship with God had been growing through all of it. What had been developing over years was now being lived out in a very difficult moment.

Sometimes we don’t recognize what God has been growing in us until life gives us an opportunity to see it.

How Jesus Meets Us

It can feel vulnerable to ask Jesus what a difficult season is revealing, because we may be afraid of what the answer will be.

But Jesus already knows what He is going to find.

There is nothing hiding underneath the surface of your heart that will surprise Him. He knows where you trust Him and where you struggle. He knows what you are afraid of, what you are trying to control, and what you are afraid to lose. He also sees the ways you have grown that you may not even recognize yet.

That changes the way we can approach this question.

We are not asking Jesus to point out everything that is wrong with us. We are inviting Him into a more honest conversation about what is happening inside us.

Maybe this season is showing you that you need reassurance more often than you realized. Maybe it is revealing an old fear that still has more influence over you than you thought. Maybe you are discovering that you have grown in ways you hadn’t noticed because you are responding differently than you would have a few years ago.

Jesus can meet you in all of it.

He does not expose what is in our hearts so He can shame us. He brings things into the light because that is where healing, freedom, growth, and deeper trust can begin.

Take a Moment With Him

Think about the difficult situation you have been carrying during this Journey. Instead of focusing on what you wish would change about the circumstances, spend a few minutes noticing what has been happening inside you because of them.

Ask Jesus, “What is this season revealing in me that You want me to notice?”

Try not to rush toward an answer or decide ahead of time what you think He should show you. You may notice something difficult, but you may also recognize growth. Perhaps you are praying instead of immediately panicking, setting a boundary you would once have been afraid to set, asking for help instead of trying to handle everything yourself, or learning to wait without forcing a solution.

Bring whatever you notice to Jesus and talk to Him about it as honestly as you know how.

Prayer

Jesus, You already know everything that is in my heart, including the parts I understand and the parts I haven’t noticed yet. Help me become more honest with You and with myself about what this season is bringing to the surface.

If fear is driving me, help me recognize it and bring it to You. If I am trying to control an outcome because I am afraid to trust You with it, show me gently. If I have placed my security in something that cannot really hold me, help me see that too.

I also don’t want to overlook the ways You have been growing me. Help me recognize where I am learning to trust You differently than I once did. Thank You that I do not have to be afraid of what You find in me because You already know me completely and still invite me to come close.

Keep forming my heart as I walk through this season with You.

In Jesus’ Name, amen.

Questions

What has this difficult season brought to the surface in you that you may not have noticed before?

When you feel uncertain or afraid, what do you find yourself trying hardest to control, protect, or hold onto?

Has this season revealed an expectation you had about God, such as believing that following Him would make life turn out a certain way? How has that expectation affected the way you are experiencing what is happening now?

Can you see any evidence that your relationship with God has grown through this season? 

Where are you responding differently than you might have responded in the past?

Remember This

A difficult season can reveal things about our hearts that are easy to miss when life is comfortable, but what comes to the surface is not something we need to hide from God. He already knows us completely, and He meets us there so that what is revealed can become part of the deeper work He is doing in us.

Today’s Faith Step

Take a page in your journal and write, “This season is showing me…” Then give yourself a few minutes to finish that thought without editing what comes out or worrying about whether it sounds spiritual enough.

When you are finished, read what you wrote and choose the one thing that seems most important. Bring that one thing to Jesus today. Instead of trying to fix it yourself, ask Him what He wants you to understand about it and how He wants to meet you there.