Have you ever prayed wondering why is this happening to me? God, why won’t you help me with this thing that I am constantly struggling with? God why do I feel like I am fighting all alone and you aren’t helping me?
I know I definitely have and a lot more lately than ever before.
Tonight I was doing my devotional and it was talking about trials and how we are to perceive them. So many times I am struggling with something and I think, God, this thing in my life is keeping me from following you fully why wouldn’t you help me overcome it? I get discouraged because I feel overwhelmed with the task and I feel God isn’t answering me let alone helping me. Tonight I got a new perspective on it.
In the devotional it talked about Navy SEALs and the incredibly difficult and exhausting training that they have to go through to become SEALs. It explain that they make the training as difficult as possible and push these people to a limit that seems unnecessary and almost impossible. But, the whole goal of this is to prepare them for something as horrific as war. If they were to make them do a couple of push ups here and there, swim a little distance, and than end it all with a full belly of food and good nights sleep they would be ineffective in battle and be extremely unprepared. In the end this excrutiating and overwhelming training creates some of the greatest and most prepared soldiers to ever walk the battle field.
Our walk with God is no different. We can’t expect God to do great things with our lives and expect an easy “training”. Sometime God lets horrible things happen to us to show us how strong we truly are and to show us that we can overcome anything with a faith in God and the will to keep pushing on. Sometimes he lets us us struggle with our sin for a while because he knows the lessons we will learn from overcoming this sin will help us down the road with the incredible plans he has for each and everyone of us.
I am not trying to make excuses for my sin or make it seem less than it is. It is still something that hurts the God who gave his own son to die for me and all of the world. But we can look at it a little differently. Every time we sin the enemy rejoices and thinks they have won and if you dwell on it and let him defeat you he has. But if you fight that sin and are constantly battling it to the end you learn from it and use Satans own weapon against him.
God never intended for us to have to go through sin and what it takes to overcome it but we do. But, because of it we are given the opportunity to beat the enemy at his own game in a way that without sin would have been impossible and pointless. God has the same faith in each of us that he asks us to have in him, and that gives me a tremendous hope. That hope is what keeps me pushing on another day instead of succumbing to my own failures and sins.
Some of the greatest lessons are learned through trial and that Is why I can thank God for my trials and know that because of them I will be a better servant for God and a better person.
Dear God, I am so sorry for what I have done and continue to do. It hurts you more than I could ever imagine and Im am deeply sorry. But, I thank you for helping me back up anyways and giving me the hope to push on and overcome the trials that I have gotten myself into. I thank you for the countless lessons you have taught me through trials and I pray that you continue to keep me focused on why it seems so hard sometimes. Without the big lesson there can’t be big growth. I thank you and love you
Amen.
