I see God moving across the deserts from Edom, the Holy One coming from Mount Paran. His brilliant splendor fills the heavens, and the earth is filled with his praise. His coming is as brilliant as the sunrise. Rays of light flash from his hands, where his awesome power is hidden. Pestilence marches before him; plague follows close behind. When he stops, the earth shakes. When he looks, the nations tremble. He shatters the everlasting mountains and levels the eternal hills. He is the Eternal One! Habakkuk 3:3-6
“Pestilence marches before him; plague follows close behind.”
Look at how God positions Himself here. He’s sandwiched right between pestilence and plague. Those don’t sound like ideal or desirable positions for a God so mighty to be in. Many of us will find ourselves right in the middle of hardship and trial; trouble and chaos; drama and trauma; struggle and strain; persecution and alienation; defeat and destitution; pain and problems; fear and failure; and the like. But we must realize that in spite of undesirable circumstances, God is still in the midst. Trouble has never had enough anything to scare off God. He’s big enough, strong enough and confident enough to unapologetically walk right down the middle isle of the troubles of life. Many of us have only attributed the presence of God with blue skies and rainbows. But God doesn’t coward down from any of His creations. He made the rainbow just like He made the tornado. He made the spring showers just like He made the summer tsunami. Therefore, He can move across them all untouched and unbothered. And because we only think He’s in the ideal and feel-good situations of life, we don’t even realize that the thunderstorms, the lightening flashes and the earthquakes we feel, are actually the force behind Him stepping onto the scene. Don’t lose faith just because there’s trouble on every side; pestilence in the front and plague in the back. Don’t grieve yourself waiting on God to show up when things are bad. He’s everywhere at the same time. Realize that He’s already there.
*Tressa Jo
One of the most debilitating things we do to ourselves is fail to grieve. Many of us haven’t grieved the losses we’ve experienced in life. We haven’t faced the true hurt we feel. We haven’t properly shed tears. And some of us haven’t even acknowledged how the loss has actually affected us. We’re in, what I call, survival mode. No time to hurt. No use in hurting. No sense in hurting. What good will it do? But whenever we resist the natural, healing process of grieving, we internalize the hurt to our own detriment. Our spirit becomes troubled. And our bodies becomes sick. Our way becomes burdensome. No one is so strong that they don’t hurt when they experience a loss. We may not all hurt the same way or to the same degree. But we all hurt. Strength is not denying pain in order to move forward. But strength is being able to move forward in spite of pain. Some have experienced grief from losing loved ones; some from divorce and other broken relationships. Some have even experience grief from seasonal shifts in their lives that no longer require their presence. I’ve learned from my own grief, that when you don’t deal with it, it deals with you. So I’ve learned to shed those tears when they well up in my eyes from time to time. I’ve learned to tell God, “This still hurts!” “I loved her so much!” “I miss her so much, Lord!” And when I tell God where I am in that moment, He meets me there and comforts me. I don’t try to convince myself that it doesn’t hurt so I can feel better in that moment. I admit that it does hurt, so that I can be filled better as God sustains me. Grief is that thing in our human experience that God won’t necessarily snatch us out of. But He will sustain us if we let Him. “He comforts is IN all of our troubles.” Grief is that thing that requires us to perpetually trust God and His sovereignty. You may not shed tears like I do. But I want to encourage you to acknowledge your pain and your grief to God. Some of us are hard and calloused or even passive and cavalier about life. But it’s not always just because that’s just the way you are. It could be your survival mode defenses. It could be your attempt to feel in control or your attempt to stay disconnectedfrom your hurt. Unlike people, God knows why you are the way you are. He knows that you are hurting. And unlike people, He can actually do something about it. Let Him.
Sometimes, the hardest thing to endure is process. Many of us have had to endure the process of letting go or saying goodbye. Others are enduring the process of deliverance. We’re waiting for God to deliver to us what we’ve been praying or toiling for. Or we’re waiting on God to deliver us from undesirable circumstances. Enduring in the waiting room of process is where temptation meets testing. Process is where the enemy tempts us. And it’s the place where God tests us. Process is the place where we’re tempted to abandon God. It’s also the place where we’re afforded opportunity to trust God. Process is never for God. It’s always for us. God doesn’t need process to do what He will to do. He subjects Himself to process for our benefit. He doesn’t need time to figure anything out. Neither does He need time to work anything out in our lives. Process is an accommodation for the limitations of our human experience and existence. He allows process for us to accomplish what we need to do, to acquire what we need to acquire and to develop into who we need to be. During process, God prepares us to receive. But He also prepares us to lose and let go. The hard part about process isn’t necessarily the fact that we have to wait. The hard part about process is waiting the right way. We can’t rush the clock. Neither can we slow it down. In the meantime, during the process, we will find ourselves in the middle of a faith fight–a constant tug-o-war between hope and hopelessness; between strength and weakness; between pushing forward and giving up; between trusting an invisible God or trusting what you can see; between believing God’s Truth or believing Satan’s lie; between giving it to God and taking things into your own hands; between what brings God glory and what brings you glory. Oftentimes, process is uncomfortable and painful because it requires us to operate from a place that has to trust what we’re not able to trace. But we walk by faith and not by sight. But even this is a process of intentional development. The process of bearing a cross offers no relief. It’s purposed by God to bring you from a place of suffering to a place of glory. And at the same time, the enemy will try to bring you from a place of suffering to a place of sin and separation. The process, also known as the journey, is hard. But it’s always worth it. It’s necessary for us to reach our destinations.
A lot of times God will reveal to us things about ourselves. We intellectually embrace those truths and sincerely feel that we have had a life changing experience. However, revelation does not always or automatically equal transformation. The bible teaches us in Romans 12:2 to let God transform you by changing the way you think; by changing your mind. Sometimes, we mistake that mental or verbal assent or that warm emotional reaction for change. As a result, we perpetuate our own bondage. We may temporarily, succeed with a shift, and later find ourselves falling back into the same bondage because we didn’t actually change. “You can not fix a spiritual problem with a physical sacrifice”. There must be a change of our minds. That takes honesty and effort and the therapeutic Word of God.
BeyondSeeLevel 