Sometimes the hard seasons prepare you for the seasons to come. When you feel this way, though, it makes you not want to go through the hard season because you start to think: “if this struggle is preparing me for something else that’s probably harder… then I don’t want to do it. If the pain I’m feeling right now is preparing me for the pain I’ll feel in the next season then I don’t want to do it. I don’t want the next season because I don’t feel like I can even make it through THIS season.” But, no… That’s not what is happening. The struggles you’re going through now, and the ones you will go through are not dependent on you. They will happen whether you want it or not. The pain you may encounter or the hardships you may be thrown into are out of your control. But we serve a God who transcends our reality of time and knows exactly what joys and sorrows our tomorrow holds. He knows what words people will say to us and how they have the potential to hurt us. He knows the actions you will make tomorrow, he knows the secrets of your heart, he knows the fears you hold. He knows. He knows. He knows.
And because he knows, he will also prepare us. He loves us too much to not give us the tools we need to not just survive but to thrive. He wants to hold us up on a firm foundation so that when we feel like life has knocked us down, instead of falling on our backs we fall to our knees in surrender to his love. Abba, my father. His plans are to prosper us, and not to harm us. His plans are to give us hope and a future. His ways are good. In the midst of the pain you feel right now, God is calling out to you asking you to reach out and cry in his arms. He knows the sorrow you feel and is wanting to comfort you. Find peace in his all-knowing-love and rest in the arms of the father who holds your tomorrow. You are going to make it through. You will come out the other end stronger if you lean into God for your strength. You can stand firm, confident, and unshaken when you place your trust in God. His plans are good. So take him at his word and trust him with your whole heart and mind. It’s so worth it. You will look back and see how God carried you every step of the way. How He held you, how He gave you the strength, and how He was enough to bring you through.
Once you make the decision to cast your worries to God and to lay your pain at his feet, the burden of tomorrow is no longer yours to bear. God gives us the gift of freedom from stress and will carry our pain. Our burdens, the things that weigh us down or hold us back, are not ours to carry. We are called to live in freedom from the chains that bind us, we are no longer slaves to our emotions or our mistakes, but instead a servant to the God who gives us a way out. The struggle we go through is simply an opportunity to test out our trust in God. You have a choice: are you going to break under the pressure, or surrender the pressure to God. If we try to carry it ourselves, we will break and crumble. We are not strong enough on our own. Choose to put your trust in God. He loves you and cares for you. Give it to him, he will make you stronger.
There is perfection in the struggle.
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