There are so many times I look back on my life and realize what an AWESOME God I serve. I'm blown away when I look back on all those times that I chose to trust in Him and He never failed to show up and surprise me. It's easy to allow pain and suffering to cloud a good perspective in a situation when God seems to be on the other side of the planet. But the truth is - He's not. He's very aware of what is going on inside of us, and sometimes allows us to feel distant from Him so that we will pursue Him, to prove to ourselves that we have faith. He's God, He already knows!God doesn't allow us to face difficulty in life so that we can prove our faith to Him. Rather, He knows that we need to go through difficult situations so that we can prove to ourselves that we have faith in a mighty God. And out of this deepening and growing relationship with God comes pure joy.
In my experience I've noticed that the most miserable people clutch their problems so so tightly and tuck them deep within their hearts - keeping a good distance between themselves and others - because others just "don't understand." - and how could they? But there comes a point when someone who is living in fear, distrust, or bitterness, because of something that happened in their past, must accept that it no longer has a hold over their lives.
Too many times we forget that there is a very real enemy that is craftily plotting and attempting to lead us astray and divert our focus from God to temporal, worldly things. Take this as a compliment. The Enemy would not pursue you and tempt you if you weren't a threat. (Now don't get a big head on me either) Think about it. Satan is trying to destroy everything that remotely reflects God - which is everything He created - and you are the closest resemblance of God - you were made "in His image". We grow when we allow God to use the "bad" things in our lives for good. We aren't the only ones with our own unique problems. There are more people struggling with the same problems than we think. Each one of us is given an opportunity in both the easy and difficult situations of our lives to allow God. When we clutch so tightly to the pain and suffering we're enduring and to the lie that no one could possibly fix the situation (or us) we close our minds to the great work God could perform in our lives and in others. That's the great thing about God, He doesn't just heal us and cause us to grow, He works in others' lives as well, through something we thought was so much bigger than us at the time.
Now I don't know about you, but I find myself looking back a lot of the time and thinking, "That was so silly of me to think my situation was the 'end of the world'." It's hard to have faith and to trust in a God you can't even see, let alone hear audibly. But I have found that in those desperate moments when it's hardest to trust God, when we choose Him over our problem, we grow - and so does our faith in Him.
A simple smile can lead us to live a joyful life. Why should we walk around with pity for only ourselves when there is a mighty God who has an agenda that is literally out of this world? He wants to make us whole and allow us to experience the great joy He has.No thing is greater than our God :)"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing" - Ecclesiastes 3:1-22
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