Day 2013 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Psalm 37:24 NIV

So I was getting back in the swing of things with an absolutely amazing shoulder day this afternoon. No matter how bad I've felt or how unmotivated I may be, just something about hitting shoulders that seriously brings me right back! Anyway, I was slinging in the gym and Storm by Lifehouse literally just stopped me in my tracks. Such an amazing song, and as I usually do, I'll drop a link below for you to give it a listen.

The song is about those all too common times in life where we're just struggling. We know that God is there and that His love for us has never changed. We know that He's still in control and will never leave our side. But even with those promises, we still just struggle sometimes. We find ourselves doing everything we can to keep trying, but nothing seems to be working. We just seem to keep slipping and sliding and getting nowhere.

I've been there so many times in my life, and I know that you have as well. As we've talked about here lately, life isn't easy. And our sins, our weaknesses, our vulnerability to temptation just makes it all even harder some days. No matter what we try or how badly we want to do better and be better, we just keep on slipping. It can eventually get to the point where doubt sets in and we start wondering if we're ever going to make it to the better life that we know God is calling us toward.

There's this one part that says, "I know you didn't bring me out here to drown, but why am I ten feet under and upside down?" Just one of those feelings that we all know pretty well. Like I said, we know that God is there and that nothing about His love or His plans has changed. But why do we still keep struggling? Why isn't it getting easier? Why can't it all just be normal and look more like the simple vision that we've dreamed up?

Before we give in and let doubt drag us in the wrong direction, we need to stop and remember that God's never let us down. We've all stumbled far more times than we can remember. We've all messed up more things than we care to discuss. We've slipped, struggled, gotten lost, and caused ourselves more headaches than we ever should have. But through it all God's been there. He's been helping us right our ship and get back in the fight.

I think sometimes we take the power of our faith for granted. We can just start assuming that God will take care of everything and make sure that every day is smooth and understandable. But that's just not how faith works. Jesus didn't build a raft or a bridge to Himself for Peter to step out onto. He called Peter to step out of the safety and comfort of the boat and walk toward Him. What makes us think that He's going to handle us with kid gloves?

Yes, we're going to get some parts wrong. We're going to mess up far more than we want to. We're going to have those moments of doubt and failure to understand or see what He's doing. But that's what faith is all about. It's about learning from our struggles and getting stronger because of them. It's about finally learning that He's always there to help us back up so we can try again. 

We will never understand His ways or the things that He leads us toward. We will never understand why we manage to stumble our way through basically everything. But we can understand that He knows we're a work in progress and that He will never give up on us. So we can't give up either. Keep trying and keep trusting, Go will get us where He needs us to be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SO2WBUwB7Kg