Sometimes it’s easier said than done, but I just want to encourage you to hang onto God & His word. When it’s hard and no one else “gets it”, when you’re tired, when you’re confused, or things don’t look like what He said…yet. If He said it, He will do it…every promise you read in the Bible & even His personal words to you. Stay with Jesus, be faithful to Him even if you don’t have much..but with the little strength you have left..hang on! He won’t leave you hanging on your own..What He opens no one can shut, and what He shuts no one can open. What’s yours is yours. What He said, He will do. Focus on Him, hang onto Him, wait for Him.
One thing I think about often, is how God is SO faithful to us, even when we don’t deserve it. He never withholds anything good from us, even when we screw up or walk away from Him. He is always right there with us, ready to take our hand and keep walking when we come back to Him. Lavishing His love and kindness over us. His heart; steady, faithful, never angry, never impatient, never rushed, compassionate, open, tender, understanding…I could go on. And the thing I think about is…I want my heart to be like His in this way. A quiet, steady, faithful heart towards not only others, but towards HIM. I feel like we always talk about and hear about cultivating a heart like Jesus to minister and love those around us, but we never talk about having and cultivating a heart like Jesus in order to love and serve Him well. Maybe it just goes without saying, but I feel like there are so many times in life, circumstances and trials and things we come up on and walk through that we fail in our faithfulness to Jesus. Circumstances that we don’t understand what He is doing, or why it’s taking so long, or we feel like He has left us on our own and everything is crumbling..and then what happens is we let our feelings lead us..and often times, I’m afraid our feelings lead us away from Jesus. I want a heart that says “Lord, I have no idea what your doing, I feel lost, I feel confused, I feel…but I’m sticking with you, because you said you will never leave me, you said you work all things together for my good, you said you withhold no good thing, you said…so I trust, that even though I don’t understand, you are up to something and I’m staying with you to see what you’re up to.” I want and I think He does too..a heart that is open and honest with Him about how we feel, but a heart that doesn’t harden or turn cold on Him just because we don’t understand.
He is SO FAITHFUL to lead us through every question, doubt, hurt, concern, etc. all of it, but sometimes we are not faithful in sticking around and holding onto Him through our questions, doubts, hurts etc. to see and allow Him to walk us through it all. We get confused, feel hurt and say “✌🏼 I guess I got it wrong or I guess God doesn’t care..” I feel like that severs a work God wants to do in us. Faith is hard. But it’s through my questions, doubts, hurts, etc., when I didn’t let go of Jesus, that I learned and experienced Him in deeper ways. It’s in those hard times where you will know Jesus and experience Him and His heart in ways that you never would if you only ever lived on the mountain top. When it gets hard, that’s when it’s about to get good. I’m not saying the hard stuff is fun by any means, but I am saying that’s where your well will run deep, that is if you allow Him to dig it deep with you. It’s on the other side where you’ll say..”that sucked but I wouldn’t trade it for anything..”
When we remain faithful and loyal to Him in our hardest times, even when our strength is little…He will do what we could never. Sometimes I feel like we live in a state of confusion and hardened heart towards God because we don’t stick with Him in some of our circumstances and allow Him to do the full work He wants to do because it’s painful, hard and confusing. God’s ways are higher than ours…living in faith means there’s probably going to be a lot we don’t understand. But when we stay faithful to seeking His plan and His purpose willing to fight through our mess and our doubt and our fears in order to know Him more and make Him known, even in the midst of confusion…doors that we could never open will fling wide open..doors of increase, blessing and opportunity to love others, love him, and make HIM known. It’s ok to say I don’t know what God is doing..it’s not your KNOWING that pleases God..it’s your FAITH. Your faith to believe and trust Him and stick with Him especially when you don’t understand. Faith moves the heart of God. And a lot of times, God wants to do a work IN you before He does a work THROUGH you. So if you find yourself with questions, doubts, hurts, feeling like God has left you…don’t let your heart turn cold towards Jesus. Run to Him and start digging that deep well with Him. Bring every question and feeling to Him and let Him do the work IN you so that He can do a work through you. And if you stick with Him and move with Him and seek Him…just wait and see what kind of doors He will open for you. All for HIS glory. 🤍