Battling To Blessing (7/22/24)

Are you in a place of life that you are praying for something to happen? Maybe it’s for a door to open, a door to close, a financial breakthrough, getting the job, etc. We all can understand that God isn’t a genie, we don’t have three wishes, He will answer your prayers, but it may not be in the way that you wanted or expected Him to. Many times we can get caught in the struggle of the fine lines in life. There’s a fine line between leaving something in the Lord’s hands out of trust, and fulfilling the command to go and make disciples, to not be lazy, and to do all things in a way that honors the Lord. It’s hard to figure out the balance. It’s like when I was in basketball. I wanted to be the best I could be, I wanted to honor the Lord in how I played, but I also rarely practiced extra, I didn’t always give everything I had at practice. I saw a quote that I think explains this thought well, “God doesn’t expect you to lean on a shovel and pray for a hole”. God says He will open doors for you, but He also says to knock. Right now my dad has been given the ability/ opportunity to heal and get well enough to come home one day. However, it wasn’t the type of miracle that skips the pain and let’s him walk out better than before. It’s going to take hard work, it’s going to challenge him physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Each day he is going to ache with the reminder of how much work he has to put into it, he is going to be sore from digging his way out of this pit. There are many days that he doesn’t really want to go to physical therapy, or answer the speech therapist’s questions, but he thinks of what he is doing them for. He pursues healing to honor God through his time here. He pursues healing for his wife, his kids, his grandchildren, and his friends. He even talks about healing so he can go and minister and preach the Gospel more. When the end goal takes a step of faith, maybe that step of faith is going to feel weighted or wobbly but it may be what works you so that you have the strength for His end goal. Peace about a decision or step is when people say to know it’s from the Lord, but if you are not having peace, make sure it’s that and not just discomfort; is it your own discomfort because you’ve looked at the effort it will take. I don’t mean that to make people think I am calling them lazy; hard work is never desirable and is rarely fun. That’s why there is the saying “work smarter not harder”. People want to get the work over with and reap the reward at the end. At least I know I do. That’s just it though, no one wants to, but if you do what other people do, you get what other people get. If you don’t put in the work to whatever you’re doing, your reward may only be worth how much effort you put in. Trust God, but also make it happen, take a step, and see what happens. Let peace be your green flag at the starting line to hit the gas.