Our trusting the Lord does not mean that there are not times of tears. I think it is a mistake as Christians to act as though trusting the Lord and tears are not compatible.
I love my wife more now than I ever have in my life. Maybe that’s because we’ve had twenty-seven years to actually practice those vows and learn what it truly means to love someone with all of your heart. Have there been bumps in the road? Absolutely? But we refused to drive the marriage into the ditch. Instead, we stopped, both got out and patched the holes in the road.
When God’s in it, it flows. When the flesh is in it, it’s forced. If he is in it, it’s remarkable how approval will be granted, how our growing interest will percolate, and how the timing will fall right into place. It will come together, almost in spite of you.
March 8, 2020
Maybe today was hard for you.
Maybe you’re in a difficult season.
Maybe grief has robbed your joy.
Maybe you “feel” all alone.
Maybe you wanted to find thanks and gratitude but circumstances have you feeling like life is more unfair than it is good.
Can I just tell you that, you made it.
The only way to get through hard things is to do just that:
Get through it.
You did it.
You’re through it.
And hope still abounds.
Joy is still to be found.
Mercies are new every morning.
Grace is still endless.
You are never alone.
And the only thing you have to be is to just BE.
Those who believe they believe in God but without passion in the heart, without anguish of mind, without uncertainty, without doubt, and even at times without despair, believe only in the idea of God, and not in God himself.
The chief pang of most trials is not so much the actual suffering itself as our own spirit of resistance to it.
He shows up in His fullness when you praise Him from your emptiness because that is when you truly have room for Him.
God is a good Father who loves to mentor you and teach you His ways. And if you fail, He lifts you up with His kindness and has already provided a way for you to get back up with His grace!
When we least expect Jesus in our lives, he shows up. Sometimes, when we are actively trying to avoid anything that would remind us that our lives are not as they should be, we find Jesus waiting in the very place we have run to hide. Jesus never forces himself on us, but he does have an uncanny way of interrupting our thoughts and actions with truthful questions and challenging ideas.