Many new Christians believe that once they accept Christ into their lives, all their troubles will be over.
Every day will be sunny. God is in control now and there will be no more problems.
With sunshine all the time, they will be content, life will be good. They feel this is the answer.
They have reached the top of the mountain.
The Bible tells us more than once that living the Christian life is just like running a race. There will be times when you are leading and times when you may drop behind. You must keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep moving forward running the good race.
When things are going well, it is easy to keep moving and trust in God. But when life brings rain, storms happen, and you end up in the valley, it can be hard to trust that God is in control.
We see His glory on the mountain, but we never live for His glory there. In other words, if we are always on the mountaintop and we never know the valley of despair, we will not grow spiritually because there is no need.
It is only in the valleys that we decide that our faith in the Lord is stronger than the pride in us. It is in the place of humiliation that we find our true heart towards God. For most of us, it takes places of fear and loss to discover the unfathomable places of God's presence and grace, tears, and silence to shape a song that is real.
Sometimes God breaks a heart to save a soul.
The valley is where our faithfulness is revealed. Faithfulness is only possible when unfaithfulness is available.
Faith untested is no faith at all.
Faith happens when you believe in your heart even though with your eyes you see nothing but darkness. You must hang your hope on God's promises. We must keep praying when life gets tough.
Sometimes you pray and pray but you feel like God is not answering your prayers.
Unanswered prayers can cause you to question your faith at times.
There is a protective cynicism that runs in the hearts of those who live in the reality of unanswered prayers. I know because I have carried it too. Am I really to believe that God not only knows the greatest desires of my heart but also is able to answer them? Am I to trust the most weighted areas of my life, the most tender corners of my heart to hands that seem absent?
Sometimes when we are in the fog and are unable to see much on our own, we need people by our side to show us where they see God in our lives. Sometimes we mistake God's respectfulness for absence. Understandably, there are times when we want God to be more obvious. But God desires to reveal himself clearly to those who desire him, without revealing himself forcibly to those who do not. God wants us to follow him not because he is overpowering, but because we trust him.
Hardships, temptations, and tests will touch us all, but the Lord allows difficulty for a reason-even when we don't understand why (Rom. 8:28).
"Part of making peace with life is knowing that in every season there is sorrow and celebration," " The quicker we learn to embrace that middle space, the more we'll be able to embrace the unexpected."
Bestselling author--Lysa Terkeurs
God doesn't give the hardest battles to his toughest soldiers, He creates the toughest soldiers through life's hardest battles.
When it rains God is our umbrella, he is our shelter in the storms. We must have faith regardless of what is happening in our lives. Faith is knowing that no matter where you go, God is already there.
"Faith is bringing the unseen into the visible world."
Tony Evans
God is not far from any one of us (Acts 17:27), even if sometimes we need others to step us into the direction that leads to a stronger relationship with him.
Our God is the all-satisfying fountain of living waters (Jeremiah 2:13).
"A life without God is like an unsharpened pencil--there is no point"
Anonymous
Often God's plans are plans that we love and agree with, but then sometimes God's plans are different than ours. It is then that we have to say, as Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane, " Not my will, but Yours, be done" (Luke 22:42).
When we surrender and trust God, we ultimately win.