People say, “God won’t give you anything you can’t handle,” usually accompanied by the implication that He sends you a trial and if you have enough faith you breeze through it and emerge victorious.
But life isn’t always like that. Sometimes you emerge from a trial scarred (and scared), beaten and holding on to your faith only by the thinnest of threads. What matters is that you hold on.
Sometimes you end up repeating “God is faithful” over and over; not out of a joyous expression of faith, but out of a desperate attempt to find that faith again. What matters is that you find it.
And sometimes you just scream, “LIAR!” at the top of your spiritual lungs because you feel like God has failed you and you know you’ve failed Him. What matters is He didn’t.
Truth is, it wouldn't be a TRIAL if it wasn't hard. Beth Moore says that when God asks you to do something hard, He is preparing you for something huge. Should be reassuring, right? But sometimes it just isn't.
Sometimes we find ourselves begging for scraps of bread rather than a huge feast because we can’t or won’t put out the effort needed to make the feast happen. Sometimes we choose to stay in our chains because removing them is hard work and as restricting as those chains are, at least they are easy because they are familiar.
Sometimes we are so tired of trying to do things on our own that we forget we were never meant to be alone in the first place.
God doesn't leave us to muck around in the mire of our lives alone. He comes to us Himself as the indwelling Spirit of God. He has promised to be our counselor, commander and comforter. God doesn't leave us or forsake us. We forsake Him.
We try to prepare the feast without the Master Chef. We try to break our chains without the Master Blacksmith.
Why? Why do we forget God’s promises? Why do we flounder? Why does God let us?
Perhaps because God wants us to surrender. REALLY surrender. He gave us a will and the freedom to choose and He has no intention of taking that will from us. He wants us to CHOOSE to let go and let Him lead. He wants us to CHOOSE to ask for His help.
And this surrendering of the will is never easy. It isn't meant to be. Yes, like a runner who trains and trains for a marathon, we can train our spirits so it is easier to surrender, but we can't make it easy. I don’t believe it ever should be. It is the struggle that strengthens us and gives us a faith that works.
"Consider it all joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because the testing of your faith develops perseverance." James 1:2&3
I've grown plenty weary of trials lately. In the last three years I've watched my father die from the ravages of cancer, faced numerous financial difficulties, endured the physical consequences of my husband's infidelity, awakened buried memories of past hurts and devastating choices and I have had to accept the harsh reality that I was a victim of domestic violence.
I have found myself crying out against God and to God more than I ever dreamed possible. I have stumbled, slipped and been shoved head-first into circumstances I was sure would break me. Yet here I am.
God has been faithful even when I haven't. He has succeeded where I have failed. Somehow in all of this I have found the faith I thought was lost to me forever. All I had to do was ask. All I had to do was reach up and take the hand God had been offering all along.
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