Too Close For Comfort

What do you do when you are stressed or trying to get your mind off something? Well, I bake. Its not good for the waistline, but its what I do. In the last week, I have gone through a big bag of flour, sugar and a tub of margarine! This speaks volumes! Well, this is a coping mechanism that's not great. I should run straight to my Father when I hurt or worry.

Trace and I are reading the book A Place of Weakness by Michael Horton. This one part hit me and I was able to more clearly see how I was feeling. During struggles, some people feel God is far away. I've gotten to a place where God feels too close. I know in my head that God uses struggles to grow you, strengthen you, to see His love and grace because let's face it, we don't see God in prosperity. We like to think that we will praise Him when good things happen and we might say thanks, but then we are distracted by the object and forget God. We seek God when we are in trouble. But for me, with so much happening these few months, this last blow seemed too much to bare. God was too close and I had to face Him... and trust Him. But I was afraid of what was around the corner, as if all this was a precursor to something even worse. I was flinching. I didn't want to feel this way because its not what I believe, its not where I live, and it certainly isn't something I've felt before.

This is where the rubber meets the road. Do I believe what I say I believe? Is Jesus enough? If I trust Him with my eternity, I must trust Him now. If I can look a sister in the eye after her world has been shaken and, with complete confidence, tell her God loves her and He will take care of her-I must believe the same for myself.

2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1:2-4