"WHEN LIFE GETS DIFFICULT"

Good Evening to All!

Have you ever found yourself wondering why you have to learn everything the hard way? I know I have. I am always kidding around and telling people if there is a hard or difficult way to do something, I will find it. Nothing has ever come easy for me, no matter what it was. That is until I began building my relationship with God.

Life is still not a bed of roses, God never promised that. What He did promise is that He would help me through it. He would be there with me.

This being said, sometimes God takes us down the more difficult path rather than the easy way because He is a Good Father. He wants us to learn from our experience. Not only does He want us to learn from our experience, but also to lean on Him.

If everything in life is handed to us on a silver platter, or if we can do everything for ourselves how could we learn to have faith in Him? How could we learn to go to Him for help?

An example is God leading the children of Israel the long difficult way through wilderness. Now according to Joyce Meyer He did this to prepare them for the battles they would face in possessing the Promised Land. Her idea is that He was concerned that when they saw the enemy they might run back to Egypt and become enslaved again in their former bondage and God wanted to teach them Who He was and that they could depend on Him to fight their battles.

While this may be true, I also think that He did it because they had turned their backs on Him too many times, and were constantly complaining about what He was doing for them so He was leading them around the desert until the generation that had done this had died. Numbers 32:13 says And the LORD'S anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation, that had done evil in the sight of the LORD, was consumed.

Now that being said, let's move on. I truly believe that a lot of people, especially NEW Christians have the wrong idea about their Christian journey. I have actually encountered people who thought that when they became a Christian, and especially when they received the Holy Ghost that all their problems would cease. That God would miraculously take them away. This is definitely an error in thinking. God will be with us as I said earlier through our trials. As far as receiving the Holy Ghost, it is He that gives us that little nudge when we are about to make the wrong decision. It is He that makes us have second thoughts about doing something that will cause us harm or trouble. He is there to guide us and to teach us, but ultimately, it is we who make the decisions in our lives. Right or wrong. If we listen to the Holy Ghost within us, it will be the right one. If we ignore it and something bad happens it is the wrong one. God will NEVER STEER US WRONG.

If you feel in your spirit that God has asked you to do something, don't back down because it gets hard. He does this so you will learn to lean on Him and ask for His help.

Well, I wasn't quite through, but somehow this got published, (by accident) so I better quit and add some pictures and color to this post.

My point to this whole post is, if God can part the Red Sea and save the millions and millions of Israelites from the Egyptians, if God can lead the children of Israelites around a desert for 40 years and not have the people's shoes and clothes wear out, or go hungry, why is it so hard to believe that He cannot provide miracles for us today? God NEVER changes. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. His Word DOES NOT LIE.

Next time you come upon a situation that you feel is "impossible", call on God for help. I bet He will answer.

I chose the above pillar of fire picture because it portrays the pillar of fire in the middle of the "dry Red Sea, with all of the people standing in the middle. I really like that picture.

The Answers to last night's Bible Challenge "Fish and Ships are as follows:

1. d) no one (Genesis 7)
2. d) Zebulon (Genesis 49:13)
3. b) Tarshish (1 Kings 10:22)
4. d) harpoons and spears (Job 41:7)
5. c) Habakkuk (Habakkuk 1:15)
6. a) Egypt (Isaiah 19:1-8)
7. b) Tyrus (Ezekiel 26:4-5)
8. c) Sea of Tiberias (John 21:1)
9. c) 153 (John 21:11)
10. d) Adriatic Sea (Acts 27:27-41)

I hope you did well on this challenge. It is also my hope that while looking up these scriptures you also were nudged to look beyond the "given" verse to gain a little more insight into God's Word.

Good Night to All and May God Bless!