When Pressing On Is Hard Work

May I speak with you today... heart to heart?  Soul to soul?

And can we pretend we're sitting together in my living room?  Drinking hot liquid from our floral cups?

I don't know what you're going through.   I don't know the pain you feel.   I don't know the battle you're facing.  But if you're anything like me, perhaps you've felt defeated at times.

Maybe you've come to a point in your life where you find yourself asking God on a daily basis... "Is this really worth it?"

And can I encourage you today... don't be ashamed to ask God this question.

Oh friend, I've been there more times than I'd EVER care to admit.  Life is hard.  Life is challenging.  Life is exhausting.  Life is overwhelming.   This road... this journey... it's filled with potholes.  The pavement is broken.  There are ditches and valleys and twists and turns.   This road of life is complicated.  And I know the pain and the disappointment and the weariness that comes from traveling too long on a stony path.

But for the Christ follower - God tells us in His word that we have hope!   

Oh the enemy would like nothing more than for us to reside in this place of defeat.  He came only to kill, steal and destroy.   He has come to rob us from anything that God intended for good in our lives.  And we need to recognize those attacks when we are faced with them.  We need to familiarize  ourselves with the thoughts that the he tries to plant in our minds to destroy us.  Things like...

• you're not good enough
• you're not smart enough
• you're not pretty enough
• you'll never have enough money
• who could ever love you after what you've done?

The reason this world feels so foreign to us is because it's not where we belong.  It is not our home.  We, as Christ followers, have a heavenly residence that awaits us after our journey on this earth comes to an end.

I know first hand that these negative thoughts can hinder us from living in the fullness that Christ died for us to experience.  Just yesterday morning I was struggling with some personal issues that kept me feeling defeated and rejected.  And it's amazing the ways God will speak to us if we tune our ears in closely to what He has to say.

And His Word will change us... transform us... if we are willing to enter into the story and engage with the wisdom offered to us in the pages of scripture.

I was encouraged this morning as I turned in His word to Luke, chapter 13.  Jesus was busy.  He was healing the sick, giving sight to the blind and resurrecting the dead.  He was teaching and preaching and sharing the love of His Father with the Pharisees as He journeyed on His way.  His ministry was alive.  He was doing the will of God, and yet I imagine if truth be told He was getting a little tired.  I imagine Jesus was feeling a bit overwhelmed by the very calling on His life.  My guess is that He was even a little fed up with the rebellion and the disbelief that He encountered on His way.  But He never lost sight of why He came.   He never gave in to defeat.  He never let the world distract Him from God's master plan.  He knew the way was rocky... and He went anyway. He knew the road was marked with circumstances that would threaten to jeopardize His entire existence and He pressed forward anyway.

And then I see the words there... words that leaped off the pages of my Bible and straight into my heart.

"Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as He went, always pressing on toward Jerusalem."  {Luke 13:22} NLT

"ALWAYS PRESSING ON TOWARD."

If Jesus could press forward knowing what was in store for Him (rejection, mockery, beating, death), we can certainly press forward knowing we have a Savior who stands beside us waiting to help us through.

And He is waiting to bless us.  The Lord LONGS to be gracious to us.  Maybe you need reminding of that too?

"Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!"  {Isaiah 30:18} NIV

We serve a redeeming Savior who stands prepared and willing to battle with and for us. We just have to be willing to press forward.

Because this life... and all of it's trials... is only temporary and pales in comparison to the joy that awaits us when we are finally home.

We have hope.  We have Jesus.

With a hand stretched out He calls, "Let's walk this weary road together.  Trust Me."

And we can trust because He knows.  He's been there.  He knows the pain.  He knows the discouragement and the discontent.

He's been there.

Good things wait for you dear one! Good things wait for me... if we will just keep walking.  He's never farther away than an outstretched arms reach.

Oh how He loves you!

Finding JOY in the JOurneY,