Part of the Change

You can be encouraged when life is difficult and overwhelming. Struggle is part of the change. If you were plugging along in your comfortable life, convinced that all is well you’d be fooled. More of Him comes in difficulty. Trust!

Because

The theology of blessings alienates people that are struggling. Whether it is health, financial, emotional, relational or any other difficulty beyond our control, this belief excludes us when times are tough. The wake of damage this idea leaves behind is staggering.

I’m All Alone

Is the biggest most believed lie we’re presented with every day. Isolation is one of the enemy’s most effective tools. Don’t listen, don’t entertain the lie and don’t be afraid to share your struggles. God is here with you and for you and He has folks around that want to be a part of His love for you.

Way off in the distance

It may seem like the solution, the resolution, peace or even God Himself is way off in the distance. Heck it might even feel like there’s no hope at all. Don’t give up! He hasn’t gone anywhere and He’s for certain at work in your life. As you’re struggling include Him, cry out or even just cry. You are loved, prayed for and at some point in the hopefully near future you’ll be able to see how this time was used to make change for the better.

Upstream

Swimming against the current is difficult. The flow of this world can be overwhelming as it comes at you with all it has; you’re not loved, you’re all alone, you’re not good enough, you have nothing to offer and so much more. Often it’s tempting to stop swimming and just float along with everyone else but here’s great news, it’s not that deep. Stop swimming and stand up. Take life a step at a time with one foot firmly planted. The further you get the easier it becomes; you get stronger and the surge becomes a trickle. How God thinks about you overtakes the lies you’ve believed and you can give a hand to those still struggling.

Embracing the Struggle

I used this term yesterday and have since heard some great things on the concept. Our culture tends to encourage that which comes easy. We elevate the “naturally talented” and bring the student that gets it easily, to the front of the class. Other cultures elevate those that overcome, encouraging the battle we must wage in order to accomplish that which doesn’t come naturally. What might God have for you to overcome?

God is at Work

You can count on it. Whatever the circumstance, whatever the difficulty, He can and wants to, make something fantastic from it. A life of ease is hardly worth living though that’s too often what we seek. A life without challenge gets old fast. The key is embracing the struggle, challenging ourselves and looking for God in the middle of it all.

Let

Romans 6:12 has five words in the middle of it (four if you use a contraction) that read “do not let sin reign”. The little word “let” indicates that we have a say in the matter, which is really great news unless we believe it means we have the power over sin and all we need to do to conquer it is try harder. What we have the ability to “let” is to let God have our sin. It’s only in coming to Him and placing the things we struggle with in His hands that we are able to overcome for real. Sure we may be able to will power a temporary behavior change but true healing comes when we place our weaknesses with Him and trust enough to leave them there.

Cloudy

As followers of God, sin no longer separates us from Him but clouds us from Him for the moment. We get to choose how long the moment is. We need to turn back to Him immediately not take our punishment into our own hands and prolong the cloudiness. This only causes us to feel more unloved which leads to more clouds.

Destroyed

“For this the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” There is no sin that we have to commit. With Jesus there is always a way out, it’s our choice. Are we going to choose self, what we think we want or need or are we going to choose God? The choice is usually much clearer than we like to believe.