Have you ever asked God this question?

“God! How much longer must I endure this (insert impossible, unlikely, or frustrating situation or circumstance)?”

Have you ever been in a hard place where you feel helpless, and there is absolutely nothing you can do in your own wisdom or intelligence or strength, no matter how hard you’ve tried, and you find yourself in complete desperation and dependency? The only solution is literally just, “God.”

“God, if You don’t come through, I don’t know what I’ll do! I don’t know how this could work out. The only solution is You, and I will keep placing my trust in You.”

Over the last couple of years, Jason and I have found ourselves in some of these kinds of situations. Somehow God has gotten us to where we are now, but we still find ourselves in times that are often, “hard, crushing, breaking, impossible…”

I have even found myself saying, “‘Normal people’ don’t go through situations like these!” ha! But, we are living anything but a normal life, and we asked for it. We sure did. I wouldn’t trade any of the hardship for a normal life, as much as I love an easy, quiet, uneventful day with no worries or concerns knocking at my door.

I’m being quite vulnerable this morning (is that anything new on this blog?) but I was dealing with some discouragement last night and this morning, and I found myself kind of fretting, kind of frantically asking God, “Oh God, help, please!” because I found myself fretting about the future and situations, and I found myself thinking, “God, things have to change!” and I’m sure He was probably saying, “Well, they will. ☺️”

After writing down a few things in my journal this morning, I looked over to my open bible. The page was open to Isaiah 28, and I was led to go directly to verse 28 (and 29) of that chapter. I really like the way the Passion Translation reads…

“Grain is crushed and milled for bread,
    but it is not threshed endlessly.
    One drives the wagon’s wheels over it,
    but his horses’ hooves do not pulverize it.
²⁹ This counsel also comes from Lord Yahweh,
    Commander of Angel Armies.
    For his guidance is unfathomable,
    and the heavenly wisdom he imparts is magnificent.” – Isaiah 28:28-29

Romans 5:3 is connected to this passage…

“Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance…”

Can I just say…. this verse is hard. It’s really hard. But for the first time in my life, I think I can understand the tiniest little edge of this. Just barely the tiniest little edge…

How else do we gain endurance? It takes some hardship and struggle sometimes to create it within us. And if we find ourselves in a place where we really need endurance, and yet we don’t have any of it, we sure would be in trouble, wouldn’t we? God knows this. ?So sometimes God has to “build” the capacity for endurance within us – and sometimes that comes from a hard process.

Because He knows what He has planned. He knows what He needs us to do.

He knows what we need to learn to be able to live the journey He has in store.

He knows what needs to be milled and threshed and broken down within us…. for our own good, and for perhaps many more than we may realize.

Grain goes through a lot of hardship to make the flour to make the bread.

But it’s only for a little while, not forever… because when the grain is ready as flour, it’s ready to be made into bread. ?

Check out The Message version of 2 Corinthians 4:8-9… wow!

^7-12 If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That’s to prevent anyone from confusing God’s incomparable power with us. As it is, there’s not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we’re not much to look at. We’ve been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we’re not demoralized; we’re not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we’ve been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn’t left our side; we’ve been thrown down, but we haven’t broken. What they did to Jesus, they do to us—trial and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, he does in us—he lives! Our lives are at constant risk for Jesus’ sake, which makes Jesus’ life all the more evident in us. While we’re going through the worst, you’re getting in on the best!

Lord, You are wonderful in counsel and excellent in guidance. You know what You’re doing, and I trust You no matter what! Thank You for somehow encouraging me through these really hard-to-read verses. You sure do have a way.☀️

-Heather ?

P.S. Coffee beans go through an awful lot too, don’t they? Picked, roasted, broken open, grinding down… A good cup of coffee is worth it though, isn’t it? ☺️