It never ceases to me, amaze me how the Father works. He usually surprises me, and because of it, I am quite humbled and grateful.
This just happened to me again this morning. I met yesterday with a friend who shared some prayer requests and struggles with me, as iron sharpens iron she asked my thoughts regarding her struggle. She knows how my husband and I do coaching, mentoring, counseling, and whatever else you want to call it. Therefore, she came to me in that regard, but also as a sister in Jesus.
If there is one thing, I know it is that when we share our thoughts, our wisdom, our advice, it is absolutely imperative to pray. To make sure that we hear what God is telling us to say, and what he is telling us not to say. I did my best to do that, but I also realized I could have done a much greater job with that. Nonetheless, I had the sense that regardless of how things went when we spoke, that God would work and do a great thing in her life. Consequently, I could not wait to see how things would unfold in the next week or two. I could not wait to hear her story.
Little did I know that the entire situation far exceeded what I could have imagined in a couple of weeks, let alone that night. My friend did the work that was necessary for things to turn around. She was willing to take the extra steps, regardless of how difficult they were. I won’t lie. What I asked was extremely difficult for her. However, this is another example of what happens when we do not avoid the hard, or the difficult, or the challenge. She went against everything in her body, in her mind, and her heart that was screaming at her that her situation was difficult, but she trusted God and moved forward anyway.
I do not think I can stress this enough what she did. She did the impossible. It took everything in her to do what she did after we spoke.
Talk about an inspiration. It never stops to absolutely astound me how when we trust God, and we do the hard, he honors that. And it is more than that. He does not just honor it. He shows up in a powerful way.
Because my friend trusted in the Lord, and did the hard thing, she was blessed tremendously.
What a reminder to me of how important it is to go against your nature that does not want to do something, but to do it anyway because you know that it will honor God, and it is the right thing to do. The easy way is rarely the right way the hard way is usually the best way.
This is a reminder that the best life we can live is the hard path that is ripe with challenges. It is the path that we walk knowing we cannot do it on our own, that we have to trust God and we have to walk with God. Living the best life possible means doing things that are so hard that we can’t do them, that we had to step out in faith and trust and know that God will be with us, catch us, and carry us.
Doing the hard thing is necessary for living the best life because we step outside of ourselves, and we have to trust in God. And when we do this, it is obvious that God is real, and God exists, because we could not have done it on our own. There is no way. We could not have planned it to happen that way. We do not have it in our ourselves to achieve the results of what ended up transpiring. Doing the hard is literally living the best life.
How often do we even think in these terms?
How often do we act with this knowledge?
How often do we choose the easy way and we miss out on so much because of it?
My friend did the impossible yesterday. And because she stepped out, and did the hard thing, God was able to work in her and through her and bring healing.
I am amazed by what she did.
God gave her his perfect and infinite strength. She didn’t just do one hard thing, she did three hard things. And each of them went against her heart and her mind. She did not want to do them, but she did them.
Oh, how much I have to learn from this beautiful woman.
A PRAYER
God, you are amazing and are so good. We are grateful because of what you have done and because of what you have taught us. Thank You for always being with us. Thank You for your healing. Thank You for the reminder of how important it is to trust you and do the hard thing. Help us remember that living the best life possible is doing the hard, it is not avoiding it, it is trusting You no matter what. To You alone be the glory, but honor, and the praise.
Journaling 1189 