Even The Hard Stuff

 

Even the hard stuff can be encouraging. I’ll even say the hard stuff can be more encouraging then the happy stuff. That may sound crazy to you, but I’ve lived this truth. In fact, I’m living it right now.

God told me to trust Him about a situation I’m having much angst over. And when I say told, I mean that literally. There was no mistaking it was Him. I was praying about this thing, crying and crying out about it. I got so riled up that I finally yelled out, “Lord please help me. I’m tired of feeling like this. What do I do??”

And He responded. It wasn’t an audible voice, but it was loud enough in my spirit to sound like it was.”Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” That’s from Proverbs 3:5 (NIV) .

My first thought was, “God is quoting His own words to me. I must really be messing up. Or this must be an extremely important lesson.” My second thought was, “But how do I do what He’s asking? I can’t seem to let this go.” I was thinking this to myself and got interrupted by the voice again.

“Trust in Me, not in yourself.”

Well then.

Now you would think I would get on with the business of trusting. After all, God clearly instructed me. But sadly, I did not. I still tried to get to the bottom of things, figure it out, collect facts, extrapolate to see if my suspicions were true. Yep, I went right on trusting in myself. And then the floor dropped from under me.

There were several instances where my facts didn’t quite add up the way I thought they did. I drove myself crazy stressing out and worrying over something I couldn’t really control anyway. In the process I know I’ve hurt someone I love several times. That’s not my intention but it’s the result of me not being obedient.

Now I know you are saying, “How exactly is this encouraging?” Well I’m learning (and relearning) a few things with my heart, not just my head.

God is most definitely a God of second chances . And thirds and fourths and so on and so on.
When God has ordained a relationship to be, it will be, no matter how badly we mess things up.
God’s Word truly is living and active. We just need to actively apply it to our lives.
I have still have a lot of growing to do, which means I will have to further develop my relationship with God to do so.
God loves me in spite of my flesh sometimes being stronger than my desire to obey Him.
God desires to speak to us.
And he desires that we listen and learn

These discoveries and rediscoveries encourage and excite me. I can do better and I will do better because God is with me. He cares about what’s going on in my life enough to speak His own words to my heart. I don’t know about you but I don’t think encouragement gets much better than that.