While being on the race I have realized a trend. The trend is the fire that we continually face. This is not a bad fire but a fire for refining, for developing our character.
In walking in this I have been given a promise. A promise that when I come out of this fire I will have more joy than I had before. I will be able to trust more than I have trusted before. I will be able to love harder than I have loved before. I have been given a promise that I WILL make it through.
Or I could just coast and stay the way I am, I could be content, I could live, love, trust. But I wouldn’t be any closer to the person I could be.
I know the fire is NOT easy. It will take effort on my part. I will have to push past my fears. I will have to be taken to the depths of what is holding me back, I will have to go all the way down, face down. Before I can walk past this. Who wants to do that? I don’t know many people that would want to walk through something they know will hurt, they know will be hard, they know will take time. And still say, “Yes Lord, take me to that place where I hurt, where I yearn, where I cry…
because I know that what you have for me is better
than what I have for myself.”
What I have learned, and am still learning, is that the fire is worth it. The hurting, the pain, the frustration, the tears, it’s all worth it. Because once the fire is gone, IT IS GONE. Yes, you may have other ones that will come up later, but that same one will never bother you again. You have conquered what God set for you, and the best thing is at the end you are able to see the FRUIT OF IT.
You are able to help others because you are not sitting in that fear or struggle. You don’t have that barrier up in front of you anymore and you can help others to freedom in that as well. At the end God will give you what he promised.
One of the men that has been with us everyday here in Nigeria said it this way,
“Destiny can only be delayed, it cannot be denied.“
The choice comes down to you…
What do you really want…
