Just a few thoughts on struggling...

Our struggles and trials in this life have two purposes one is to cause us to grow and change the other to help comfort and encourage others. We so often get caught up in the moment of our painful situation that we forget it is for our own good. We allow it to carry us to a place that is even more painful, a place that focuses on the circumstance and ourselves. In that place we see nothing but the pain and the darkness it creates in us.

To forget that God brings the hard moments into our lives so that we will become like His Son, is to forget who God is. God must refine us, the impurities of our life must be removed, and it is only through the hottest fire that this is possible. Are we willing to walk where that may take you? Many get lost in the pain and fire because they forget who is with them. God walks with us through the fire even during those times when the fire burns so hot that you feel consumed by it. God is our stronghold and He is protecting you as you walk through the fires of the refining process.

There are those who we can learn from. They walk boldly with their God through the refining process. Unfortunately they are the lesser few. Most feel the need to cover the pain and wear a facade that shows they have it all under control. They don’t want you to see that inside they are falling apart. In the darkness they cry out to God in broken pain. They see it as a sign of weakness to let others know they are struggling. They don’t realize that it’s in the sharing of our pain that comfort and encouragement of others can come to help heal us. It’s in the sharing of the burden that our dark moment can be a little brighter.

Why do we cover our pain? God can use it to His glory if we were only willing to let the facade down and be real.