I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to quit some really hard things that the Lord has had me walk through.
It’s not easy to admit, but quitting has always seemed “easier” to me. Which is a complete lie, because all that ends up happening is I detour myself the long way around. I end up facing the same thing. The circumstance may be different but the learning and refining process is the same one I tried avoiding.
He has sure been having me come face to face with quitting…and what’s at the heart of it.
It’s when things get hard & messy…and they will get hard & messy, that us humans tend to get a little misguided.
What happens when we pray about something, read scripture, seek His direction and are led a certain way? We get humbled & excited, right? We are ready to obey & go!
Then hard sets in, our efforts don’t seem to be producing much fruit & we’re running into one dead end after another. We tell ourselves that this must not be God’s plan after all. Sadly, this is where many abandon ship & quit.
I don’t know about you…but, goodness have I ever.
Did He lead me there? YES. Did He lay that direction on my heart? YES…and then I let my feelings start to cloud my vision.
He wants me to fully depend on him, not myself. He wants me to persevere and endure. I need to commit to trusting Him in the unknowns.
I must…wait on Him, his timing & his way.
These refining moments weed out all my plans. If I’m honest, the hard times expose so much about me.
Instead of running from that, I need to own it.
When things don’t go as “planned” how easily do we claim we must have misheard Him. God did-didn’t-did-didn’t.
He doesn’t change his mind like a light switch. That’s usually us.
So many times we miss the character refining & blessing because we quit.
We quit on Him.
We quit on ourself.
We quit on others.
I know I shifted from I to we & there’s a reason. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one that struggles with quitting when things seem hopeless.
Quitting can’t & shouldn’t be my default. Especially when I don’t understand what’s going on, or what the Lord is doing. I don’t have to understand- I just have to follow hard after Him and let his strength be mine.
“Oftentimes God allows our scenarios in life to get hopeless—He allows our efforts to become fruitless—He allows our knowledge and instincts to prove useless in order that we will see that it is He who works within, through and for us with His power.
He does this because He wants you, like Peter, to witness Him come through for you in your hopeless situation so that you will experience Him and trust Him in the way that He wants to be experienced by you.” – Tony Evans
He refines us because he loves us. Quitting isn’t an option.
I’d like to share Ephesians 3: 16-21 with you-
“I pray that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us— to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (CSB)
My prayer is that you & I can really believe and rest in the truth of this scripture.
My friend, when things don’t go the way we think they should & struggles come let’s remember Who we serve, why we serve him & what our life is truly for.
There is purpose in the hard! Romans 5:3-5
Loved beyond measure,
Tracy
My Hope 