Pressing On In Ever Growing Faith

No evil shall befall you,
         Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
 For He shall give His angels charge over you,
         To keep you in all your ways.
  In their hands they shall bear you up,
         Lest you dash your foot against a stone.
 You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra,
         The young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.          
 "Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him;
         I will set him on high, because he has known My name.
 He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him;
         I will be with him in trouble;
         I will deliver him and honor him.
 With long life I will satisfy him,
         And show him My salvation."

 

Psalms 91:10-16

 

It is a given that most do not like it when the going gets tough—they're uncomfortable. It's like having someone poke us in a tender spot over and over again. If we had our way, we would be lazy and hide in a shell of selfishness from reality, from God's prodding at our heart and from pain.

 

However, we do come to a point that we realize—time and time again—that these hard things are incredible blessings.

 

When God reveals a sin and takes hold of it, uprooting it from our heart, He tells us that it's dead to us and that we must relinquish it. Yet when He claims it as dead to us and takes us away from the old places we once wallowed in, and into new lessons and seasons… it is a very good thing.

 

We can see God more clearly when He clears away the weeds from the garden of our heart. Pain drives us to Him, and because we know that He is sovereign and that He is good, we are able—through the pain and tears—to thank Him for hard things.

 

They make us know, rely on, and trust Him better, and that is simply amazing.

 

When God lays His hand on something in our life and looks us in the eyes and says, "Let go; this is not yours. It does not glorify Me or serve you. I have something far better for you!" We know that He is right, and though it's difficult to surrender we know that we can trust Him. He doesn't change, and He's always been faithful to His own. If He cared enough to supply the fulfillment of our greatest need by slaying His only Son in our place, then how can we not trust Him to continue to be good to us?

 

That good might not look like we expected at the time, but that's all right. We would far rather have His best for us than our misconception of what His best might look like. And so we will press on in ever growing, by His strength, in the faith that He gives us—for He is our Lord, and we can trust Him.