Sorrows fall like rain, troubles swarm like bees, all of the heights I reach will be out of pain and anguish: all will come, there is no avoiding it. BUT I will be steadfast in my faith in God, for He knows how (and will help) to get me through them. My soul braves every gale, my courage will be strung in the midst of the unknown, and I will echo “I will not doubt” in my soul from now and until my final breath. Reason, past experiences, heart breaks, even prayer; none will be enough to push you to keep going on. You MUST rest, putting your soul into God’s hands, and leave it there.
Do not try and reach for it again; do not make up a “reason” that you may need it back temporarily, none of it. Know that every decision you make in Him, as you trust in God more and more will be immensely difficult; but after you get through the storm, with God walking hand-and-hand by your side, it will be absolutely worth it. “That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.” -2 Timothy 1:12.
God will hold on to your deepest secret, your hardest decisions, your heartaches and endless tears, and all of your struggles, far beyond the day you confess them to Him, asking Him to store it away, to mend your heart and help you to start again. Hosanna! He has risen! He took on the worlds’ crosses, providing a way not only to live in eternity with Him and His Father (OUR Father) but also a way to Him, someone to know that, without a doubt, you can entrust anything to Him and he will never let you down. The world will berate us, any person will tear us down/ has the ability to do so (including fellow believers), but the only one who is absolutely perfect, the only one who will never let us down is Jesus.
Always remember that Jesus didn’t have to die on the cross. He could’ve gotten off that cross, ascended into Heaven before the Sanhedrin found him, even just destroyed all of those people who mocked him, who hurt him, BUT he didn’t. He let them whip him, mock him, put nails through his hands and feet and even a crown of thorns pushed onto His head, letting them make fun of his title as King, just to show us HOW MUCH he loves us. He even loved those who did that to him. How incredible is our God, how unconditional and endless His love must be, since he was willing to take up OUR crosses and die a gruesome, painful death, the one we deserve but don’t have to face because of His sacrifice.
Another thing we must remember is that He didn’t promise us a life without trials, without pain. And, he doesn’t just take our pains away either; we have to confess to Him, not because he isn’t able to take them in a snap, but because He’d rather hear us tell Him what we need Him to do. He would rather us tell him because he still wants a personal relationship with all of us, and just like you would tell a trusted friend, he wants you to do the same and much more with Him. We must sit down, inwardly before the Lord, and let him work it out for our good, according to His will. We may not see/feel Him moving right away, or even at all, but be assured that He is working it all out for us. He knows what’s best, and he knows how to get us there, but we always mess with it when we make a poor decision.
When we mess up, all he asks is for us to sincerely want to change it (to let Him make you better) and confess it to Him, and He will start on you again. Essentially, he will put us back into the mold and chisel at our character again, to make any accommodations/cuts in order to mend what our poor decisions broke apart/tore. In order to let Him do this, we must exercise stillness; we must leave all of our failures, fears, foes and future with Him, and we must not try to take it back. “He says, ‘Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.’” –Psalm 46:10.
Also, keep your eyes skyward, looking to God and what He wants for your/our life. Discouragement, doubts, even depressing situations/thoughts will come, but as long as you make an effort to always reach out to Him, to immediately pray when you feel any of those things, He will guide you back to where you are meant to be. Do not yield to a discouraged soul because then, you enter into a helpless state. You won’t be able to stand against the devil’s schemes, and you won’t be able to effectively pray for others.
Flee discouragement and chase bravery, chase God’s power and strength (in a healthy way, knowing that you will never have His exact strength/power). As you shun doubts and depressing thoughts, you will quickly see the powers of darkness and sadness drift away, with God’s help of course. Have a childlike trust in Him to lead the darkness away; do this to yield effectively. “Finally, be strong in the Lord and His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” –Ephesians 6:10-12.
