As God’s Body of Believers, we all face similar trials at various times. Even Jesus experienced every issue that we will ever come up against (Hebrews 4:15). When we allow others to nurture us and to give us advice, they receive the same blessing that we receive when we comfort and encourage them – it does our soul good.
When humans are hurt, we withdraw within our self, lick our wounds, and look for healing. When we turn to God’s Word to heal, we receive words of eternal truth that sustain us for our whole life. When we stop fighting alone, and we reach out to the Body of Christ for help for prayer, then we overcome obstacles together.
I love to journal my negative emotions, because this lets the air out of their sails and minimizes their size. What appeared to be a giant trial, often turns into a minimal issue when we write about it in our journal. This also allows God’s Spirit to direct our steps through every issue in ways we may never think about if we did not listen to His Spirit as we write it down.
When we journal, we see answered prayers along the way, and we can note the date in the margin of when God answered that prayer for us. This increases our faith in His faithfulness and teaches us to trust in Him alone during every problem we face. We learn many lessons in our trials, and journaling helps us to remember these guidelines from the Lord.
The words in our journal also help us to see how clinging to God through the storms of life gives us a solid Rock on which to stand. God cares about every matter that we ever face (1 Peter 5:7-9), and He has a solution for us in it before it ever begins. We simply seek His face, and we listen to His instructions through each matter.
As we maintain an eternal perspective, we can function in an overflow of joy that gives us strength. We focus on the will of God through our circumstances, rather than trying to work out the status from our human perspective, and we find more fulfillment and peace than ever before (2 Corinthians 13:9; Proverbs 31:25).
Life on this earth is temporal, finite, and temporary. Reading back over the posts in our journal enables us to see God’s hand in our life, and to trust Him through every future problem we face. God is always faithful and true to His Saints (1 Corinthians 1:9), and He gives us His perception, patience, power, and peace through each moment of our day.
Prayer:
Father God, at times we wearily trod through the trials of our life and have a hard time keeping our head from drooping to our chest in defeat. However, if we seek Your face through each situation as it comes, we see the miracle You planted in it, and this builds our faith for the next negative circumstance that we face. We learn to anticipate Your protection, provision, and presence in us each day of our life.
Remind us to celebrate the victory that You share with us, and to trust You in every apparent defeat. We can do this, because we know that You care about us in all our ways and in every one of our days. Help us to live, move, and have our complete existence in You, rather than in worldly wisdom and guidance. You keep us in perfect peace when we focus our mind entirely on You (Isaiah 26:3; Acts 17:28).
Thoughts for the Day:
As we live with an eternal focus, rather than an earthly mindset, we have extra victory in our defeats and more of God’s peace in every decision we ever make. We emerge from each testing with a new steadfastness of faith, additional opportunities for perfection, and having need of nothing this world has to offer.
