It seems as if I am in a season of constant difficulty with no end in sight! Quite honestly, I have no desire to do hard or difficult seasons! I would much rather avoid these seasons altogether! My parent's generation completely understood that life is not easy, that it’s hard work and at times very difficult. Despite the struggle, their faith was never shaken – it was steady and true no matter what came their way. But not me, or for most in my generation or the upcoming generations! We see the on ramp for 'hard' and look for a way around it or, we go so far as to look for a way back to where we once were in order to avoid the difficult season altogether! We beg God to take it away and when He doesn’t we want to quit on God!
I wonder if He gets as frustrated as I do when I hear the cries of how a hard day is impossible! And yes, it is my own cries with which I am frustrated! But there in the midst of frustration, He gently reminds me that it’s human nature to want to take the easy road! It’s human nature to see a sea in front of you and an enemy quickly pursuing you and think, 'This is too hard and difficult! Let’s go back!' It’s such a shame that this is our nature, but what is an even bigger shame is that nature is suppose to be dead – dead under the blood of Jesus! It is sad that our tendency is to run from conflict and battles because it’s in the difficult seasons that God gets to show up in such a beautiful, strong, and amazing way to part the sea and destroy the enemies before us. All the while, using such situations to build our faith and refine us! Maybe instead of looking for an easier season, we should learn to walk through the difficult and ask God, “Lord, what is it I am to be learning here?” It’s in the difficult season that we need to press in and worship the only One that can part the sea and destroy the enemy that is quickly approaching. Maybe, just maybe, it’s the difficult seasons that actually bring about the very victory God has for our lives! I mean, look at Daniel, he was in a permanently difficult season. He was living in captivity and yet it’s on his most trying day that God showed up with the most power. The day he was thrown in the lions den was both his worst and his greatest day; it was the day in which God preformed His greatest miracle for Daniel. In the midst of this severe trial, everything that Daniel said about his God was proved true and Daniel's faith increased as a result of trusting God! And because of all that, an entire nation was changed! Think about it, it was because of a man's difficult season that a miracle took place, and out of that a nation changed! Look at Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego: their hardest day and biggest battle was also the day that God showed up in person and walked beside them!!! A moment that had to forever change and mark them! A moment where persecution brought about God's plan for their life!? Can it be that our Savior allows what is needed to bring about victory in my life, to bring about purification and transformation in me? Come on now, it’s our most difficult days that God shows up the most but so often we don’t see Him there because we are searching for a way out! They pressed into what they knew about God despite what their circumstances looked like! You see, because it’s in the “pressing-in” that the victory truly comes. The victory isn’t in the parting of the sea or the destroying of the enemies. It's not even the shutting of the lion's mouth or being able to stand in fire and not be burned. The victory is in the moment that I begin to transform and look like my Savior! So today, I embrace this difficult season, not that I don’t seek God for the victory, but the victory I seek is my personal victory. This victory looks like: me looking less like me and more like my Father! So I press into Him and say, 'Refine me, Lord!' And I keep my eyes on the one who can part the sea and destroy my enemies trusting and pressing into Him!
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ANGELThere is a constant ebb and flow of seasons in my life: some easy, some not so easy. But with every season I am learning to focus in on Jesus, see His face and allow myself to be immersed in the process so that at the end of the day I look more like Him! Thanks for joining the journey!
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