I’m going through this “thing” right now…

…and it ranges from being a minor “hindrance” to “Father! I can’t deal with this anymore! What am I going to do?”

Why is it surprising…

…why does it so often catch me off guard…

When I find myself frustrated and struggling to do the things I know I am supposed to do?

When I find myself in a battle?

When I feel pain and weariness…

When things don’t come as easily as I’d like them to…

When I find myself having to really press through in order to get to the other side…to a fresh, new day…

Oh the times that God doesn’t just “take it away” so that life is “easier for me to do”…

When my healing isn’t instant….

When He doesn’t just remove the pain in the moment that I cry out to Him…

…the times I feel that this “hindrance” is starting to make what I am supposed to do, seem “impossible”…

Resistance.

Oh it would be so convenient if He were to just take it away!

Oh, it would…… wouldn’t it?

It would just be so much more… “doable” then, right?

Well… maybe not.?

Because God knows what He’s doing when He allows us to endure through something hard.

When He allows the resistance to remain.

He knows what He’s doing when He allows us to be “poked and prodded” by the enemy sometimes.

There’s something He wants us to learn, there’s something He knows we will so beautifully gain!

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I’m realizing that in this life, when we’re on the right track...

God will often allow us to endure through something that’s painful for a little while.

It’s part of His process.

And sometimes He wants us to endure through the pain, for a little longer than what’s comfortable for us—even if we think we couldn’t possibly deal with it another day.

…in the moment, we can’t grasp and understand the BEAUTY of what He’s wanting to teach us—to build in us— from what we’re going through.

But one day, we will understand. ?☀️

One day, we’ll be able to see it from a different perspective.

One day, we will see it all pulled together. ☀️?

“…but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”—Romans 5:3-5

When God doesn’t just “take it away”…

I must remember that His ways are higher than my ways.

I must remember that He says that though Him, I can do the “impossible” things… even when I don’t feel like I can.

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”—Philippians 4:13

I must remember that if He says to “keep going” then I will be able to “keep going”…no matter what I face. ?

He always has a reason for allowing us to remain in the place of “having to push through” in order to do what we’re supposed to do.

Because He knows what we’ll gain something so valuable from enduring…

…things that we cannot comprehend in the moment.

But He knows…

And He is trustworthy.

And He is worthy to be praised every second of the way, in the midst of every moment of the hardship.

No matter how much it feels like, “I can’t live through this, God!”

He says, “Yes, you can. Yes, you will.”

He says, we can do all things, through Christ.

And when we’ve emptied ourselves of everything…

All of our strength, all of our own abilities…

That’s when He catches us, and that’s when He carries us through.

That’s when His glory is seen. ☀️

Thank You for these reminders, Lord. ?

How I need them today. ?

You always know what I need.

Romans 8:28-30

The Message

^26-28 “Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

^29-30 God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.”

And I hear Him say,

“That thing that you’re dealing with right now?

That thing that you’re suffering and struggling through?

I promise, that one day, you will be able to look back, and have no regrets about enduring through it. Because you will see the beautiful work of My hands…and you will rejoice! …and you can rejoice now!” ?

-Heather ?