Endure...

I'm feeling burdened. I don't exactly know why but I feel a weight. Maybe it comes from the day to day junk going on...I don't know. Do you ever have that feeling? When you just want to crawl back in your four walls and pretend the outside world doesn't exist. Pretend like everything is perfect and blissful. But it just isn't so. You know the verse...“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”

1 Corinthians‬ ‭10:13‬ ‭NIV‬‬

So much truth in this but also a truth that goes misunderstood or overlooked...."God will not give me more than I can handle"....as long as I truly know Him. All this "stuff" this "junk" this overwhelming sense of dread and the heavy burdens can only be managed...can only be tolerable...with Christ by your side. Life is not always grand and great. If it wasn't for my Savior and my daily asking for grace, mercy and forgiveness how would I ever make it through? When I can't see an end in site or when the world is just too heavy to bear...this world is not my home. We are in a season of great hatred in this world. When my naive self wants to live in harmony but the rest of the world is ready to spread hate and discouragement in every direction. Let me just say I am so thankful my God is a forgiving God. That he doesn't hold my past against me. That the words, actions and deeds of my past are gone through His forgiveness. Thank you Jesus I am not who I was 10, 15, 20 years ago. That he forgives me daily for the sinner that I am. I am owed nothing and deserve nothing in this life. This life...this hard place to bear...this burdened life...this overwhelming dread...isn't my end. There will be no end when I enter the kingdom of God. The world as I will know it then will be perfect. Bodies will be made new and whole and these burdens will no longer be. I can only tolerate the burdens of here and now with my Jesus. 

Decrease so I may increase...you've heard it before. The verse in John “He must become greater; I must become less.””

John‬ ‭3:30‬ 

What does that really mean. To be less. To be more. To be this or be that. To say this or to say that. Sometimes it means to do nothing. So many times we want to say something in our belief to be right. We want to lash back at some comment or post and say "what planet are you living on because I don't think it's Earth" ...but this decrease so I may increase may just mean to hold your tongue in anger and abide by Grace. To pray for matters and individuals at hand. To become less self-righteous "for the cause" and maybe take a deeper look at scripture. My God is a big God. A God who knows every thread of time from beginning to end. He knows the days of suffering as well as the days of joy. Will you put your faith in Him or this world?