A few things have been stirring in my heart and I have been praying and asking the Lord, ” How do I write about this? How do I convey these truths with words where they can’t hear my emotion and know the attitude of my heart?” You see, what I am about to share could sound harsh depending upon how you hear me “saying” it. So I would first like to open myself up to you and say that I only can write about things I have journeyed through. Everything I share with you, more than likely I have learned by experience, and am so incredibly thankful to the Lord for loving me enough to correct, redirect, and change my heart. I would never be coming from a place of thinking I am better than anyone, just simply hopeful that you could learn from what I have learned. So many wonderful people have done this for me. I would not make it, if it wasn’t for God placing them in my life. With that said, here we go!

Father, thank you for your love. Thank you for your goodness. Thank you that Your ways, Your Word, everything about You are always for us. Help us to become more like You today. Open our hearts and help us to receive from You all that You have for us today. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen!

Right now, times are tough for everyone. We are all finding ourselves in fear of loss. Losing jobs, homes, relationships, status, marriages, cars, hope, dreams, joy. Most of us feel like we are on the verge of losing just about everything that matters to us. This is not a place any of us want to be. This is a place where it is very easy to become overwhelmed and allow ourselves to go into the place of drowning. We enter the place of drowning, when we make a choice to magnify our despair,hopelessness, and lack by turning our viewpoint completely on ourselves and begin asking the question most of us never find the answer for, “Why?”

In just the past week, I have had at least three conversations where my friends were saying, “I just want to know why!” Man, I have been there many times in my few years. Just asking the Lord, “Why would you let this happen? Why didn’t that happen? Why didn’t you stop this, or warn me?” I want to start by assuring you, the Lord’s shoulder’s are big enough to handle our questions, however, I am certain He has shown me a higher way to overcome despair.

As I began taking notice of the similarity in my conversations, I started seeking the Lord for revelation concerning the hopelessness found in the “why” questioning. He has only begun to share with me, so please know I do not think I have all the answers, I just want to share the part that has been revealed to me, which had brought me life and hope when I couldn’t find it anywhere I searched.

^{2 Cor 4:16-18MSG}So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever

I believe the Lord has encouraged me to acknowledge that He is God and I am not. He is the Creator and I am His created child. We are sons and daughters of God, but we are not God. We are not equal with God. He is higher than any other. We need to know this so we stop trying to understand Him, explain Him, and then dismiss anything about Him we cannot understand. Can I just share with you that I cannot even wrap my mind around how massive the ocean is, yet the one whom we try to understand with our finite minds created that ocean, and the whole Earth, and all of us, all the galaxies, stars, everything. We are not ever going to fully understand God. We need to be in a place of humility where we can say, “You are God, I am not.”

^{Job 38:12-15MSG} “And have you ever ordered Morning, ‘Get up!’
told Dawn, ‘Get to work!’
So you could seize Earth like a blanket
and shake out the wicked like cockroaches?
As the sun brings everything to light,
brings out all the colors and shapes,
The cover of darkness is snatched from the wicked— they’re caught in the very act!

We are also encouraged in His Word to, “Enter into His gates with Thanksgiving, and His courts with Praise.” The Lord has shown me thanksgiving and praise help us to magnify Him. Help us to think upon, recall, and remember all that He has done for us, who He has been for us, and the miracles we have seen thus far. God is constant. He cannot change. The same God who was with you then, will always be with you.

Once we have immersed ourselves in His presence, our “Why” question may still remain, this is when we have to make a choice. I believe He has shown me we are to turn our “Why” into, “Lord, how can I glorify You through my suffering?” I know this doesn’t sound satisfying to our flesh. To our desire to know why have I had to endure this suffering. Yet when we come to this place, we have to remember Jesus. Jesus suffered greatly for us even before we would chose to accept Him. His Word tells us that because of Jesus’ sacrifice for us, we will share in His inheritance but we must also share in His suffering. We may have to endure tragedy, trial, and tribulation here on earth, but because of Jesus, there is Heaven awaiting us for all of eternity. When we know Him personally as Savior, not only can we help others through their suffering because of our experience, we will also understand His love for us to a greater level, and we can look forward to an eternity of no tears, no fears, no pain, no death!

^{James 1:2-4MSG}Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.

Lastly, on top of knowing Jesus suffered for us, remembering all the blessings and miracles He has worked into our lives, helping others through their suffering, choosing to turn our question of “Why” into “How can I glorify You through this?”, I want to share one small thing which helps me through the enduring of hard times. There is this song that has these words in them, “Life is not a snap shot,” meaning, it won’t always look this way. This will only look,feel,be this way for a season. Someday you will rejoice again. Someday there will be peace again. Someday soon. I pray that helps you along the way also.

So friends, be there for one another, encourage one another, share these truths with one another. We can’t do it alone. Praise Jesus!