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The Struggles of this Life


Wow, you have been through quite a bit over the last several months, haven’t you? Astonished that I know that? Well it is because we all go through struggles in our lives. I don’t have the answers as to why we have to go through all of these things in life, but I do know that we go through them – and so does God. I have heard many people say (myself included) that it is all part of this journey we are on in life and that it serves to make us stronger. I don’t necessarily buy into that answer any longer though. I have friends who are separated from their loved ones, have parents who are entering their final days on this earth, have kids who appear to be going down the wrong road, and those whose marriage is crumbling right before their eyes. How are these things supposed to make us stronger?

I think we have gotten it wrong, at least wrong in the sense that we have to toughen up and stop acting like a child, because that is essentially what the advice is. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!” I disagree! We should act like a child! In fact, we have a Heavenly Father who wants us to come to him with this life’s struggles. Did you know that we can go to our God as his child and crawl into his arms? Did you know that he wants the pain to go away, just like we would want our own child’s pain to subside? Did you know that while God is commanding the cosmos, he is also very interested in what is going on with your life?

I say that we get rid of that “what doesn’t kill you…” saying. The struggles we go through give us, as the children of God, an opportunity to draw closer to our Father. We can confidently approach the throne of the King, and we can also run to our Daddy and just ask him to hold us for a while. My friend, it is certain that these struggles will not end in this life for me or for you, but we can use these struggles as an opportunity to draw closer to God – he is very capable and willing to shoulder the weight of these burdens for us. Now, that is what makes us stronger.

In Christ,

Jon

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