Saturday, March 5, 2016

Sunday Thoughts


Have you ever wondered why God allows difficult things in your life? If you're like me, during the really hard times, you do question what God is doing (or not doing). I think this is totally normal. After all, we know we're not horrible people so we wonder why we're being punished. This is my question a lot. Am I doing something so bad, that I'm unaware of, that God must punish me? Or I will go through my past and pick out every horrid thing I've ever done and feel that God has every right to punish me. This isn't what God is like at all. Our sins are covered by the blood of Jesus if we have asked Him to be our Savior so He's not punishing us for past sins.

Does He allow difficult thing to refine us? Does He allow difficult things to set our paths straight if we've started to go crooked? Yes, He does. He cares about us so much, He wants to grow us and make us more like Him so we can influence others for His kingdom. This is never easy for us, I'm not going to pretend it is, but He is always with us during these times because He knows we're going to need Him more than ever during these hard times.

I've been through some really difficult things. Really difficult. I can honestly say that some of these things have scarred me deeply. There are things that I've been through, hurts that I've encountered, that will never leave me. However, I don't have to allow them define me or even keep me in a pit of despair. God always has a hand that He's reaching down to pull me out of that pit. Of course, it's up to me to reach out to Him and allow Him to pull me out. I can choose to stay in that pit, if I choose. And yes, sometimes I choose to stay there. Who doesn't love a good wallow at times? The key, though, is to not ignore His outstretched hand forever. If I do, my pit will grow darker and deeper until it feels almost impossible to get out.

I have to make the effort to open my Bible every day. How easy is it to get so frustrated by life that I just let my Bible gather dust? It's the enemies greatest weapon against me - the feeling that I don't feel like reading my Bible or doing my studies. Since I now know that about myself, I have to be even more focused on doing just that. You'll have your own issues that satan uses against you - you need to be aware of what they are so you can double your armor and efforts. Remember it's the evil one's greatest desire to grow us colder to Jesus.

I'm actually writing down, on my to-do list, my time with God. I didn't have to used to do that but right now I do. I'm battle scarred and shell shocked and satan is using this against me. Writing down my quiet time on my to-do list, then actually doing it, is helping me tremendously. I had to figure out what I needed to do to stay focused and then do it. You may need to do the same if you're like me.

I encourage you to be gentle with yourself. It does us no good to add insult to injury by beating ourselves up. Figure out what you need, what you're able to do, then do it. God loves us so much and He would never want us to be cruel to ourselves.

If you would like me to pray for you, please leave a prayer request in the comments. Or if you would like to keep your prayer request more private, please feel free to email me. You'll find my email on the "Contact Me" tab at the top. If you feel like it, I would also love for you to pray for me.

Many blessings on this Sunday!!

Love - Julie

1 comment:

  1. I am praying. Please pray for my injection to work on Wednesday!

    ReplyDelete

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