Day 2589 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.
Galatians 2:20 NIV
God doesn't lead us through trying times to punish us. He doesn't pull us away from what we find comfortable to make us angry. He doesn't lead us through the hills and valleys of life just to watch us struggle to find our balance and figure out how to handle it all. He does it because He sees something in us that we don't know is there. He sees what He sent His Son to die for. He sees our full potential, something that we can't possibly find on our own.
So often we look at the situations and circumstances that we're up against and we let them beat us. The sheer magnitude of life's trials is enough to leave us cowering in the corner begging for mercy. And that's what we usually resort to. Asking God to take it all away. Asking for the mountain in front of us to level out so it will be an easier road. But as we discussed yesterday, praying away life's difficulties is praying away the very things that are only there to help us.
We need to stop paying so much attention to what we come up against. What we face is actually a very small part of life. What tells the biggest part of the story is how we handle it. It's not what we're tested with that matters. What really matters is what we manage to find inside of us when pushed beyond our limits and forced to rely on things that we've never had to even look for in the past. That's why we should be thankful for the hard road that God's will leads us down.
He wants to help us see who we are. He wants us to learn just how strong His Spirit is that's living inside of us. He wants us to have to actually live out the faith that we profess with our mouths. How better can we learn to lean on Christ than when Christ is all the hope we have left to make it through something so much bigger than anything we can handle?
When we lay down our old lives at the foot of the cross and ask Jesus into our hearts, everything changes. Who we are, what we do, what we live for, how we go about the tasks that we're called to do, it all changes. We no longer have to rely on our strength alone. We don't have to face anything by ourselves. His salvation brings with it the gift of the Holy Spirit to help guide us where we should go and overcome every obstacle that lies in our path to get there.
We have to stop letting life force us to forget who we are and whose we are. We are God's servants, redeemed from the edge of despair, created new in Christ to do things that our old lives would have never dreamed of accomplishing. This world nor anything we face here can change who He says we are. We are more than breath and bone. We're more than what our limits say we are. We are soldiers of faith fighting the good fight with the power of the Father by our side!
Friends, life isn't going to be easy. But that doesn't mean we're destined to become victims of what we go through. The trials and challenges we face help us hone our faith and strengthen our resolve to follow Christ and do what He asks us to do no matter the struggle or strife it brings. If we have to go through some hard days and weather some scary storms to learn to lean on Christ, then that's exactly what we need.
And if we have to be pushed, tested, led where we would never go to do what we don't think we can do in order to finally realize who we are and what we have inside, then that should be our prayer. To be given the opportunity to face things that are challenging, not because it's easy, but because it helps us learn what faith is and just how powerful the One is that we have that faith in. Don't pray away the things that scare you. Pray for the things that open your eyes to remember who Christ is.
In this world that’s filled with evil and darkness, we’re going to come up against some giants that seem to block our way and end our progress. But it’s only when we come up against those seemingly insurmountable odds that we can finally learn that we are truly more than conquerors in Christ. So we don’t need an easy path free from trial. We don’t need the world to stop being so mean and hurtful. We don’t need the anger and hatred to stop coming our way. We need to learn to focus on God and lean on the strength of His Spirit inside of us. When we do that, nothing that lies in our way can shake us!
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