Have you been seeking God, truly desiring to do His will, yet it seems like things in your life haven’t been happening the way you thought they would? At times you may have even felt like you weren’t progressing at all. When God is maturing us, He may allow us to go through some things that are tough for us to understand. With this being said, we should remain in faith, and never take for granted the things that God has blessed us with, and the process He allows us to go through.
“That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory and the appearing of Jesus Christ.” - 1 Peter 1:7
As we live our lives, it’s important that we do so with a spiritual/eternal perspective on things. We should consider the long-term effects of the decisions we make and the things we are going through. When a mother is going through a pregnancy, she may go through many challenges in her body, but the end result of the baby being born is often what can help the mother endure the pain and keep going.
Sometimes we can get so used to things going a certain way in our lives that we can start to feel uneasy when God begins to take us down a different path because we are out of our comfort zone. And while remaining in our comfort zone may allow us to feel safe and secure, it can also lead to us being more dependent on ourselves than we are on God (this is not always the case, but it can happen). However, when we our out of our comfort zone, we may tend to be more dependent on God, and we may also learn more about ourselves, and the things we need to work on.
For example, I used to run cross-country, and some team practices were definitely harder than others. Sometimes the coaches would let us go on distance road runs that were at a nice brisk pace, but sometimes we had to do these things called mile repeats. Basically a mile repeat consisted of running a mile over and over again. The objective was to run the mile hard, take a break, then go run another mile hard, and continue this until the coach said we could stop. Doing those mile repeats could be incredibly tough at times, but they also could help us gage just how in shape we were and how we needed to improve as runners. The coaches weren’t putting us through those tough practices because they disliked us, but rather because they wanted to see us improve. And as a result I became a better runner.
As Christians, it’s important that we don’t look at God taking us out of our comfort zone as Him disliking us. God loves us and He wants us to continue to grow and improve, so we should follow His instructions, and stay on the path that He has put us on. We should also be thankful and never take God (or the things He does for us) for granted. I would like to end this blog entry with a passage of scripture coming out of Luke chapter 17. In this instance Jesus healed 10 people, yet only 1 of those 10 thanked Him. Let’s remember to always be thankful to God.
“And one of them, when he saw that he was healed turned back and with a loud voice glorified God. And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, were not ten cleansed, but where are the nine? There are not found to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole.” - Luke 17:15-19
“That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory and the appearing of Jesus Christ.” - 1 Peter 1:7
As we live our lives, it’s important that we do so with a spiritual/eternal perspective on things. We should consider the long-term effects of the decisions we make and the things we are going through. When a mother is going through a pregnancy, she may go through many challenges in her body, but the end result of the baby being born is often what can help the mother endure the pain and keep going.
Sometimes we can get so used to things going a certain way in our lives that we can start to feel uneasy when God begins to take us down a different path because we are out of our comfort zone. And while remaining in our comfort zone may allow us to feel safe and secure, it can also lead to us being more dependent on ourselves than we are on God (this is not always the case, but it can happen). However, when we our out of our comfort zone, we may tend to be more dependent on God, and we may also learn more about ourselves, and the things we need to work on.
For example, I used to run cross-country, and some team practices were definitely harder than others. Sometimes the coaches would let us go on distance road runs that were at a nice brisk pace, but sometimes we had to do these things called mile repeats. Basically a mile repeat consisted of running a mile over and over again. The objective was to run the mile hard, take a break, then go run another mile hard, and continue this until the coach said we could stop. Doing those mile repeats could be incredibly tough at times, but they also could help us gage just how in shape we were and how we needed to improve as runners. The coaches weren’t putting us through those tough practices because they disliked us, but rather because they wanted to see us improve. And as a result I became a better runner.
As Christians, it’s important that we don’t look at God taking us out of our comfort zone as Him disliking us. God loves us and He wants us to continue to grow and improve, so we should follow His instructions, and stay on the path that He has put us on. We should also be thankful and never take God (or the things He does for us) for granted. I would like to end this blog entry with a passage of scripture coming out of Luke chapter 17. In this instance Jesus healed 10 people, yet only 1 of those 10 thanked Him. Let’s remember to always be thankful to God.
“And one of them, when he saw that he was healed turned back and with a loud voice glorified God. And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, were not ten cleansed, but where are the nine? There are not found to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole.” - Luke 17:15-19