Hard Things

I just finished reading “Through The Eyes Of A Lion” by Levi Lusko. I know. It came out awhile ago and I’m late to the party, but it’s been on my list so yay! Anyway, I came to this verse in the book:

“I had heard of God with the hearing of my ear,
but now my eyes have seen him.”
Job 42:5 ESV

This stopped me and made me think of all the times I sat and heard people sharing about how God was with them in a difficult time or the preachers that shared about God’s character and love. They all encouraged me and gave me a foundation of what to believe about God and how to walk with Him.

BUT!

It’s when I walked through my own hard thing that I saw God.
I saw God be there for me through the tears of grief and sorrow.
I saw God be there for me through the pain of rejection and betrayal.
I saw God meet us in moments of uncertainty.
I saw God’s healing for my girls.
I see God daily as I walk out life with MS and Lupus and all the fun that comes with that.

How about you? Can see the difference in your life of hearing the reports about God from other people and seeing God move on your behalf?

The gift of the hard things in our lives is that we get to see God in a new way. We get a clearer, sharper image through the lens of suffering that helps us focus on something we haven’t noticed before.

Yes, walking through a hard thing can suck! I have learned to be thankful for them because I get to see God and not just hear about Him! It can take awhile to get there, the place where we are thankful.

I think we can fall into a trap of Christianity where our knowledge of God is more indirect and impersonal. We can be busy checking off the list of the things we need to do and God becomes another part of our long list. That doesn’t mean we don’t love Him or teach our kids about Him or share about Him at work or school. We just slide Him into the busy.
But let something hard and horrible happen, and all of a sudden we are drawing closer to Him. We are relying on Him in a way we haven’t been. Still not a bad thing. That’s what He wants, is for us to go to Him.

And what we learn about Him in that place of hard and horrible is what we take with us as a gift and hopefully a tool to stand on and to fight with next time.

We know the basics of Job’s story and how God was bragging on Job and Satan challenged God to let him go after Job a bit to test him. God allowed it but Satan could not kill him. So, all these horrible things happened in his life and in chapter 42:1-3 Job says this:

“Then Job replied to the LORD:
I know that you can do all things;
no plan of yours can be thwarted.
You asked, Who is it that obscures my counsel without knowledge?
Surely, I spoke of things I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me to know.”

Our humility in acknowledging that we don’t know everything, we don’t see the big picture, and we don’t hold back the ocean or put the stars in the sky releases us from frustration, anger, and doubt.
We can rest in the midst of the hard thing on the massiveness and majesty of God in our life.

Charles Spurgeon says, “The door of repentance opens into a hall of joy.”

Let’s not get it twisted by thinking we will be rewarded like Job was, getting double back what we lost or being super blessed. Warren Wiersbe says: “That not every one of our hard things ends with us getting all the problems solved, all hard feelings forgiven, and everybody ‘living happily ever after.”

Like Job, when we endure our hard thing and don’t curse God, we silence Satan in our lives. We have the unique opportunity to bless and worship God through our obedience to Him.

He also said “This chapter assures us that, no matter what happens to us, God always writes the last chapter. Therefore, we don’t have to be afraid. We can trust God to so what is right, no matter how painful our situation might be.”

I don’t like walking through hard and horrible things, but I have and I will again. Hello, being human and living on earth. There is a great hope I have now that I didn’t have in my early days of following Jesus, I can see God and I can trust Him.

Let me leave you with one more thought from our friend Mr. Wiersbe:

“No matter what God permits to come into
our lives, He always has His ‘afterward.’
He writes the last chapter - and that makes it worth it all.
Therefore, BE PATIENT!”

So, sweet friend, if you are walking through a hard thing right now, know your story isn’t always going to be stuck on this chapter forever. God is with you! If you are walking in sunshine and rainbows right now, I hope you remember the beautiful gift of seeing God in a new way when the sky turns dark. God sees you!
(Because you know that saying “this too will pass” goes for the good and bad of life, right?!)

Have the most amazing day!
All My Love,
xo ~ Jodi

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