"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.”

Matthew 5:11

 

Friends, today I am sitting in another moment of deep despair.  Despair lingers around when there is no hope in sight.  Despair stays around when you can’t see the situation changing and the pain of suffering stunts your growth.  I know that I can’t stay in this place.  This place is not a healthy place to be.  

 

This is how I felt when I thought the storm should have passed, but it hit again and again. . .

I crumbled

I endured a long lasting freefall into a pit of hurt

I kept falling into myself

Out of myself

Into hurt again

Out of joy

Dipped in hurt

Seeped and wasted

Poured out to drown in hurt

I crumbled

I dried up my love

I laid down tired

Wrinkled and confused

 

I cannot share with you all of the details of my plight but my oh my the enemy keeps attacking me.

 

We all have times like this.  We all have times when we want to ask God: 

 

Why did you let this happen? 

 

We don’t always understand why bad things happen to good people or why bad things happen at all.  But we should refer to the bible to try to make sense of our circumstances and to try to find hope so that we can keep living. . .

 

We know this much:

 

We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Romans 5: 3-5

 

I know, I know . . . It is hard to rejoice in the suffering!  But this is what we do as Christians.  We unfortunately live in a fallen world where people are less likely to look out for others and more likely to look out for themselves.  I do it, you do it, we all do it.  If you want someone to really care for you the way you need to be cared for, that person really needs to know the love of Jesus Christ.  We are all still learning the fullness of that love.  We are in the process of becoming new so that we can efficiently hold the contents of God's love.

 

Listen very carefully because I am going to tell you a major lesson of life . . .

 

People will use you until they use you up, with no regard for the condition it will leave you in. There is no meaning in attempting to please other people.  Our ultimate purpose is to please God!

 

More than this realization, understand that people will always misinterpret your purpose.  You have to be confident enough in your relationship with God to hear what his plans are for you and not be affected by what other people think your purpose should be.  People don’t do this on purpose, it is just a part of their human conditioning by an evil culture.  We care more about ourselves than we do about each other. We often possess the mind space of avoiding suffering and thus compromise our values for the sake of our own comfort.  In this process of avoidance, we run the risk of hurting those who are closest to us.

 

But you, woman of God and man of God; Don’t avoid suffering!!!  Your suffering  is a time for you to grow!!!

 

I want to share a video that I found on YouTube about the process of building your hope.  I never heard a teaching like this before and I thought it was very beneficial when explaining why we suffer as Christians.  As taught by Holly Furtick from the Elevation Church, suffering is a stage in a cycle.  We all go through it, but we can’t stay there too long.  Suffering is a necessary step to promote your perseverance, and to build your character.  You are being shaped by God the more you go through things.  The more you keep trusting that he will bring you out gives you more hope for the next storm that comes your way.  Head to this warning though, don't stay in the suffering stage for too long. . .

 

Know this, you are not alone.  You are not the only one that is going through trials and troubles.  The Lord is with you always.  He is teaching you about how things work in order to shape you into a new vessel so that you can hold the love that he is pouring out in you. Oh, how beautiful you are when you can pour out God’s love onto others even when they hurt you.

 

A key to the kingdom when understanding how to heal your soul is to forgive the person that hurt you.  Be kind to the people who try to kill you.  Say thank you to those who stab you in the back.  Turn the other check when someone slaps you.  They don’t know that who they heap abuse on is someone strong enough to take it and someone wise enough to grow from that experience.

 

 

 

This blog is dedicated to spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the coming of his Kingdom.  Therefore all content is God centered and adheres to the word of God.  My Goal is to motivate you to find your purpose.