When we run from difficultly, we run from growth
How you approach what is difficult is how you will deal with reality.
If you run from the difficult things, you also will run from reality . . . at least the reality that is considered negative or uncomfortable.
And when you run from reality, you actually end up missing hearts, opportunities, and will ultimately hurt those around you.
This is because you are first hurting yourself.
How?
Those things we run from are the very things that bring growth.
How often do we mistake comfort for the "peace" we say God is using to lead us by?
I have seen so many people and myself more so buckle under difficulties and say things like, "I just don't have a peace about it anymore."
What are we really saying?
That God isn't in something if it is hard?
That He doesn't actually desire us to go through something difficult?
Oh dear . . .
That we should plead humbly on our knees for maturity to see that God does not just cause good feelings and harbor is away from all the negative emotions we face.
His peace is never at the mercy of our circumstances.
In fact, in the midst of any form of negative emotion, if we would only humble ourselves and be broken and not try to be strong in facing it, He promises He will not turn us away.
"You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one. You do not want a burnt offering. The sacrifice You desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God."
-Psalm 51:16-17
How we embrace difficulties is how we will embrace the realities of ourselves and who we are and becoming.
How we see difficulties is how we will see ourselves and the realities of the world around us.
The truth is, God does cause us to not only walk through pain and difficulties, but also, when we choose to, He causes our growth through them.
It isn't that He just wants us to grow up.
No, that would be an unfortunate way of looking at it for maturity would than loose much of its beauty for something so much less than.
" . . . But we also glory in or sufferings because we know that suffering builds perseverance; perseverance character; and character, hope."
-Romans 5:3-4
How many of us want hope... ask for hope... almost demand hope, especially from God.
Yet, how many of us ask for the suffering in which developed that hope, cultivates it, and brings it to fruition in our lives?
Now it would or at least might be silly to ask for suffering.
But as it is written in the scriptures, shouldn't we first measure the cost of what we are wanting to build before we ever begin to build it?
We pray for the blessing of hope, yet we curse in the envelope in which it arrives.
We sing in songs and talk amongst fellow believers this romantic idea of growing and maturing, yet when God gives us opportunities to grow and mature, we run.
And we use Him as an excuse . . .
"Well, I just don't have a peace about it . . . so it must not be God."
Yet, when things are going awesome for us, we sure don't hesitate to say things like, "That had to have been the Lord!"
If we actually knew what peace from God meant, it would be much more clear than "good feelings."
Good feelings come and go... anxiety and fear attack us regardless of what peace we carry from God.
The difference is the peace of God, as the scriptures tell us, surpasses all understanding . . . which simply means it does not have to make sense to us.(Philippians 4:7)
God's peace is never at the mercy of our circumstances.
Us feeling good or bad about something is and never should be a sign of His peace, for that is still going off of what we understand or don't.
That is watering down the peace in which He gives us to our level instead of the Grace in which empowers us to face any circumstance no matter how hard or seemingly impossible.
How we approach what is difficult is how we will in-turn approach what is reality.
When we run from difficultly, we run from growth.
If we need to run, let us run to God every time, no matter what.
And if being obedient means facing something that we would typically run from, than we should trust Him to give us the Grace that empowers us to be able to do it.
I will leave you with this last verse . . . in the hopes that you take some time as I will as well to let this sink to where we tend to run from difficulties.
"Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which is taking place to test you [that is, to test the quality of your faith], as though something strange or unusual were happening to you."
-1 Peter 4:12
I think we would be completely shocked at the extravagant extent God will move on our behalf when we just stick out the hard things in life He wants us to stick out.
For I believe that something incredible awaits every trial and every tough circumstance, with Him.
