There Is Grace Hidden In Hardships

Hardships never come by easy. It's difficult to see the good in any hardship we face, especially when all we see is the harm that it's doing in our lives. Although it may seem that God's grace and love are nowhere near our hardships, the very opposite is true. God's grace still follows our hardships. There is grace hidden in hardships. 

A friend recently asked me, why would a good God let us suffer?

While she saw suffering as a bad thing, I saw suffering as a good thing. Perspective changes everything, and perhaps it was our different experiences in life that made us see things differently. 

But I too used to see suffering through the lens of her eyes. There was a time when I refused to live God's way and chose to do things my way. I left home and every good thing that I once had, and pursued a relationship that God never intended for me to pursue. 

I thought life would be great - I had the life that I wanted and the man that I at the time wanted to be with. But as each day went by, I slowly drifted farther away from God. Lie after lie, choice after choice, I finally found myself stripped away from the pure joy that can only come from the Lord. 

I found myself empty, lost, and bounded by the sins of my life. I was suffering. 

But now when I look back at my life, I am thankful that God allowed me to suffer because it was in my suffering that I realized I needed God. 

God will use our sufferings to draw us near to him. 

Sometimes it's only through hardships that will get our attention to God. While it may seem that my suffering was horrible on God's part to allow, I see it as God's grace. If he hadn't allowed me to suffer the consequences of my sinful life, I would never have turned my life to him and found the true joy I have in God today. 

God is a good God, even in the midsts of our sufferings. Regardless if our sufferings are caused by our own actions or just from life happening, God's plans are always good and he always intends to use our suffering to glorify him at the end. Romans 8:18 says, "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us."

God can use the bad that happens in our lives and turn it for our good (Romans 8:28). The bad things in our lives become good when we surrender it all to God. 

God will never force his way in our lives. The worst thing that God can do to us is to gives us what we want. Romans 1:24 says, "Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another." God gives us what we want to show us that the very thing we wanted will lead us to hardships and a destroyed life. 

God's grace allows us to suffer for our sins so that we would run back to him. The story of Jonah from the Bible shows God's hidden grace in the midst of his suffering. Jonah refused to obey God by not sharing the word of God to the city of Nineveh. God didn't force Jonah to go to Nineveh, but he did allow hardships to happen that would lead Jonah back to God. God allowed Jonah to suffer by being swallowed by a whale, but in his suffering, he went back to God again. 

Jonah prayed to God in the midst of his suffering and said, "In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry." (Jonah 2:2). At the end, because Jonah obeyed God, the whole city of Nineveh was saved, and Jonah's relationship with God was restored. If God hadn't allowed Jonah to suffer the consequences of his own choices, Jonah would never have run back to God. It was God's grace for allowing Jonah to suffer.

If you are going through a season of hardship, trust God to take care of you. God hasn't abandoned you in your sufferings; he is only using your suffering to draw you closer to him. God is always offering his arms of love wide open for you regardless of what you have done or where you're at. His love endures for you. Psalm 136:12 says, "with a mighty hand and outstretched arm; His love endures forever."

Run to God because he has plans to turn your hardships around. Just as God was able to use Jonah's hardships and my own past for his glory, so does God plan to use your hardships for his good and glory. Use this opportunity of hardships to draw closer to God, and you will find true joy in him. 

God is still with you even in your sufferings. If you would open your eyes and realize that God is consistently pursuing you to him. God will use people in your life to point you back to him and even your sufferings to zone you to the very arms of his love. So remember, there is grace hidden in hardships. 

God Knows His Plans For You

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

It's hard to make decisions in life when we have no idea where our decisions today will take us tomorrow. So how do we make the right choices? How can we be sure that we're on the right track when everything around us is so uncertain? 

Here's the good news - we don't need to know what will happen tomorrow because God already knows what will happen. He created you with a purpose and has made plans for your life. God tells us in Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the plans I have for you.." 

No one on this earth knows the plans for your life except God. No business expert, parent, or even the smartest person alive can give you 100% assurance for what will happen tomorrow. We can only trust in God's way because he is the only one who knows the plans he has for us and only he can get us there. 

Whether you're making a small or big decision in life, let God make that decision. How can we trust our own choices when we don't know the future? Only God has the best answer to the uncertainties in your life because he knows it all. 

Our future may be uncertain to us, but it is never uncertain to God. 

A better tomorrow starts with the decisions you make today. Are you asking God to help you make the right choices for the decisions you have to make? Have you waited and heard from God before coming down to a conclusion? Are you still the decision maker of your life?

Let God be the decision maker of your life because only he knows what is best for you. 

God knows his plans for you. 

Prayer: Dear lord, I put my trust in you. For you know the plans you have for me so I am believing and trusting in your ways. 

Failure Is Not The End

The feeling of failure is one of the most devastating feelings that can keep you down. It's hard to get back up when failure tells you that you're not good enough. Your failures may be able to tell you what's going on at the moment, but what it can't tell you is your potential. Failure is not the end. 

I'm a very ambitious person when it comes to my career and faith in God. While it's a good thing when my ambition leads me to succeed in my career goals and relationship with God, it can also be a bad thing when I fail. 

I get really hard on myself when I fail, which happened not too long ago. 

A lot has been going on these past few weeks and my priority to put God first was pushed off. At the end of the week, I felt so guilty and not worthy enough to serve God. The goals that I had promised to improve for God didn't get accomplished, and there I found myself swallowed by my failures. 

I couldn't see myself "good enough" to serve God, nor could I see myself accomplishing the great purpose He had for me. But it was at that moment when God reminded me of a verse that gave me hope. The verse was Lamentations 3:22-23 which says, "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." 

I've always known this verse but at that moment, the Holy Spirit was able to give refresh this verse to me as if I never read it before. The revelation of God's beautiful and faithful love to me was a reminder that failure is never the end with God. The Lord's faithful love to us will never leave our failures to nothing. His unconditional love is the hope we can hold on to even in the midst of our struggles. 

How beautiful are God's love and grace for us that even in our failure, he says to us there is still hope and that his purpose in us has not changed. God doesn't leave us at our failures. When we fail, God says I still love you, now get up and try harder. God takes us in and opens the doors of hope through his love and grace. 

Our failures can't stop God from loving us. God's love gives us another chance to walk in his purpose and display his glory. 

If it wasn't for God's love and grace for us, we would never have the opportunity to live for him and partake in building his kingdom on Earth. Why would we not take the grace that has been freely given to us through Christ? God gives us grace not so that we can keep sinning, but to give us another chance to display his glory and live our lives to the fullest. 

Romans 6:1-4 says, "Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means!..We were therefore buried with Christ through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life." God gives us mercy and love so that we could live a new life apart from our old ways; to live powerful and impactful lives for God's glory. 

Don't let your failures define your purpose in life. God has already defined your purpose in life regardless of today's failures. If you have fallen short, let it lead you into the arms of your loving father, God. He will strengthen you and give you new hope to try harder. 

You are an overcomer through Christ Jesus. 1 John 4:4 says, "You dear children are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world." When you depend on God, he will turn your failures into testimonies. God is the one who is able to bring hope in the midst of your deepest struggles. He hasn't given up on you and never will. Don't let your failures leave you where you are at. So remember, failure is not the end.

Prayer: Lord, I thank you that even when I fail your hands are still open to love. I thank you that even when I fail your purpose for me still prevails. I thank you that even when I fail you still give me hope till the end.

There Is Beauty In Surrender

"The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters." Psalm 23:1-2

Many of us believe the more we have control over our lives, the more secure we will be. But the truth is, the more we let go of our lives, the more God can hold it securely. 

Psalm 23:1 says the Lord is your shepherd. Just as the duty of a shepherd is to watch and protect its sheep, so is that God's duty to you. God desires to protect you, but you must let him do so. 

Surrender your life to God and know that your life will be in good hands.

God is the only cure for your worries, and to receive that cure comes in our surrender to him. 

 It's when we refuse to surrender our lives to God that we become filled with worry because we know there is no 100% guarantee that our ways will work. But God promises that he will always give us the best. God's ways will always give us 100% assurance that everything will be ok. Deuteronomy 31:8 says, "The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."

Have you truly given up your life to Christ? If you have, then why are you still worrying about your life? The day you accept Christ is the day you agree that your life is no longer yours but for God. God calls us to abandon the worries of our lives - to remove our ownership of our lives and let him take ownership of it. 

Because you no longer own your life, it is no longer your responsibility to take care of it. When you surrender your life to God and submit to his will, you are giving the responsibility for God to take care of you. Give your burdens to God and rely on him to take care of you. If an almighty God is offering to carry your burdens, why wouldn't you let him? 

If you are overwhelmed with worries and fears, then it's time to surrender your life to a God. He will replace your worries and fears with his peace and love. Psalm 55:22 says, "Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you.." God wants to be your shepherd - your protector and provider. It's in your surrender to God that you will find his beauty and power evident in your life. 

There is beauty in surrender.