Each of us have days and often times they are seasons, when we wonder what happened, when things just don’t work out.  When we have to decide to stay stuck or move forward.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. Hebrews 12:1 MSG

Be willing to release every weight that so easily beset you. We can’t afford to get messed up by every little thing, or even every big thing that comes our way. Disappointments, challenges, setbacks are frustrating, but they are a part of life, and you shouldn’t allow them to sideline you for weeks, months or years. Life is to short, and way too precious.  Remember you only have one life to live, and the time you are wishing and waiting for things to get better, you are spending priceless days you can never get back.

Do you know yourself? What are your weaknesses? Do you fall out when you feel like you can’t control what’s happening? Do you have a difficult time when God says no or wait? Do you feel challenged when you have to give something up that you really want? What is it that pushes you over the edge and makes you feel like crying? Know your challenges and weaknesses and keep them in prayer.

I know I can deal with a lot, but I hate loss. It took me a long time to deal with that, I felt like I lost so many things in my teenage years. I don’t always understand why people have to go and I have struggled with that for quite awhile. Over time, it has become easier, but it’s still difficult more difficult than I want it to be. What that teaches me is that I have to pray. I have to pray about loss, I have to pray about “my idea of fairness”, I must come to appreciate people for as long as I have them. For some people that is not difficult, and for some others, I am bowling right down your alley. Praise God for your areas of growth, even before you SEE them happening, know God is working on you. It feels good to be able to work in that area and deal with every thing that God is doing, His timing is always perfect. I gained peace around it because I know it is never God’s desire to hurt me, Jeremiah 29:11 tells me that.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (NIV)

There are times in my life when I wasn’t not to sure God’s plan was not to harm me. When my father died, when I was 13. When my aunt died of cancer, 3 years later. When my godfather, who I loved like a 2nd father told me he had full blown AIDS, and died 10 years after my dad. You couldn’t tell me that I had not made it to God’s hit list. I was devastated and heart broken, not just once but over and over again. I didn’t feel like God’s plans were fair, and I really didn’t feel like any good could come out of them. Some things we don’t understand on this side of glory, PERIOD! I looked at Job, the first chapter a couple of weeks ago as the enemy is talking to God in Job 1:8.

The LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.” – John 1:8 (NASB)

What an amazing privilege to have God point you out. Like take a look at him/her watch them, God is saying look an example, bragging about one of His children. As we read that text, know we read it with the benefit of seeing it in the context of the whole book of Job, but can you imagine how poor Job felt trial after, trial, tribulation after tribulation. I can almost hear it, or at least my 21st century version of that experience, “God like really, all this really, I can’t take all this, all of this is just way to much to deal with, who do you think I am, God”. I am thankful; the Lord did not give me Job’s assignment. Yet, at the end of the story God restores His life, and His possessions, but God never shares with Job the why. He doesn’t get to hear that God thought so highly of him, Job is left with questions. We meet a stronger Job at the end of the story, and Job questions God, and God can take it. There is a point where God clearly helps Job understand that His ways go beyond anything that Job, can understand. This is where we must live and where we must stand, when things seem uncertain to us. God loves us way to much to make a mistake. Trust His heart, when you don’t know where His hand is taking you, just know you are in His Hands, and that is a great place to be!