I keep the “My Utmost for His Highest” devotional next to my bed and when I have a chance, I’ll open it up and read the day’s devotion before we go to sleep. Saturday night’s was RIGHT ON.
Let me share a portion. The title was “The Discipline of Difficulty.”
Here’s what stood out to me…
“God does not give us overcoming life. He gives us life as we overcome.”
Do you ever find yourself expecting more from God? In other words, you do A, B, and C so you expect God to give you 1, 2 and 3? But that’s not really the way God works. Our relationship with Him is not supposed to be a give and take, a contract, or any kind of you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours kind of agreement.
We convince ourselves that if we do the right things, follow the right formula, that God will give us a good, easy life, complete with plenty of money, solid, happy relationships with our spouses and family and friends. A good, easy life.
Does your life look like that? Mine sure doesn’t! 
(click “Keep Reading” link to read the rest…)
I find that the more I lean into God, the more I depend on Him, the more I give myself to Him, the harder obstacles can seem. But, there are also good things that can come. For example, right now, my husband still doesn’t have a job. He’s at home with me. But, because he’s home, he’s helping do marketing for Wives of Faith and helping with the planning for the events we have coming up. He’s gotten to spend some great quality time with our son. He and I have grown even closer than we were, in our faith and in our marriage, and though we can’t see what exactly our future holds, we know God is in it. Yes, the obstacles can be challenging – knowing where the next paycheck is coming would be great- but through all of this, we’re learning that dependence on God is just that – dependence.
Oswald Chamber writes “God never gives strength for tomorrow, or for the next hour, but only for the strain of the minute.” We gain our strength through the strains of life; we build our endurance when we go through the hard parts. And it’s how we look at those tough situations that’s really important. Do we freak out and flail about, trying to find a solution? Or do we turn our focus to God and ask Him to show us the answer in His time?
It’s only when we do the latter that we can really discover what the “good life” is all about. Happy Monday!
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