So throw it back to a couple months ago in Vietnam. Things were not easy for me. The scenery was beautiful and the people were lovely but I just wasn’t feeling it at all. I felt a huge resistance in my heart to the things we were involved in. It just wasn’t a good spot for me to be in and I knew it.
So I sat down and had some conversations with Jesus. I told him about the resistance in my heart.
I confessed that some of the time I was unwilling to push past that pain to just do those things anyway.
I just laid it all out there. The good, the bad and the ugly.
Lovingly He invited me to try it again.
And I did.
And wow.
I decided to start facing each day ready to fight.
When I felt the resistance of my heart not wanting to do something, I did it anyway.
I started applying it to everything I was doing and things took a drastic turn.
I started liking doing the things I previously didn’t want to do, I started hearing the Lord more clearly, I became more joyful and I just felt better in every sense.
The lesson I learned was that when you climb that mountain and you get to the other side…that’s where the good stuff is!
The beauty of perseverance and strength waits for you on the other side. Jesus is waiting there. Hoping that we will put our wants and desires to the side and follow Him over the mountain to a life of abundance.
“Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory. We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.”
Romans 5:1-5 NLT
“Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”
James 1:2-4 NLT
