One of the biggest blessings in my life is The Mission House and the group of people that make it up. It is amazing to have a group of people in my life that I can call on at any time for prayer or advice. Each person from there brings something different to the table. It is just an amazing representation of the body of Christ and how we all serve a purpose. Twice a month, an amazing lady named Katie Swaim gets a group of us girls together for a bible study. We are currently going through the gospel of Luke. I don't know about you guys, but I absolutely love doing bible studies with other people. Yes, I love reading the bible by myself too, but there is something so incredible about doing it with other people. My favorite part is being able to see how God speaks to us all differently and reveals different things about His Word to each of us. When we start talking about a passage, it is like we are a pinball machine. We bounce ideas off of each other and get everyone's perspective. I have never felt like I have unpacked a bible verse as much as I do when I am with these girls. We can spend an hour talking about just several verses.
Several weeks ago our conversation led us to come up with a list of steps of what to do when you reach a rough patch in your life. We all have rough patches. Even if we are following God's path. He uses those rough patches to refine and polish us. So below is what we came up with. I typed it up that day and am just copying it now because I am lazy...
So today in bible
study we were discussing Mary and her journey to Bethlehem. We often look at
Mary and see her faithfulness and willingness to be used by God. She
immediately accepts the fact that she will be carrying the Messiah and she
submits to God. The next thing we know she is treasuring all the things about
her baby boy. But what about what happens in between these two points? Was her
journey perfectly smooth? I think we can all agree that it was probably not.
She probably faced much ridicule and rejection being pregnant without being
married. Traveling over 80 miles on the back of a donkey while being extremely
pregnant doesn’t sound like a piece of cake either. Pregnancy itself does not
seem easy, especially in those times. And yet, she kept on going. I can only
guess that she doubted and wondered why God had her go through this. That is
natural. In my own life, I get caught up in the idea that when I am on God’s
path for me that it will be easy. There will be rough patches in our walks with
Christ, even if we are on the correct path. God loves us too much for it not to
be easy! He uses those times to teach us and mold us and draw us closer to
himself. So what do we do when we come to those rough patches in our walks?
Katie, Nina, and I came up with this list of things to do in order to check
that we are where God wants us to be and to help us persevere. I did take some
creative liberty so that it would make the acronym SPIRIT.
S- Stop! When things get
messy or hard, negative thoughts start to flood our head. We are filled with
doubts and worry. We need to take some time to stop those. This can be
physically stopping what you are doing or simply just stopping your thoughts.
We are called to focus on God in the tough times, and often times this requires
us to silence our mind and still our hearts.
·
“Be still, and know that I am God” – Psalm 46:10
P- Pray and listen. What
more could God want than for you to come to Him with your worries? He sent
Jesus so we could communicate with Him. Why not use this gift? When we pray,
however, we must pray honestly. God knows every depth of our heart, so why do
we need to pray honestly? When we are honest with God, we are forced to be
honest with ourselves. This can reveal deep doubts that we have. When we admit
these doubts to ourselves and to God, that is when He can start to work on
them. What good is praying if we do not listen? A relationship is two-sided.
God will respond to your prayer, you just have to find how He speaks to you and
listen.
·
“Call to me and I will answer you. And show you
great and mighty things which you do not know.” – Jeremiah 33:3
I- Identify doubts honestly.
When we come to rocky points in our lives, doubts arise. Once we start to
pinpoint what we doubt, then we can work through those doubts. Doubting is
sometimes viewed as weakness. However, when doubts are brought to light and
then worked through, that is where strength in our beliefs comes from. We are
never alone in doubting. All have doubted something at some point, even Peter
doubted God’s power when he was walking on water.
·
“He said to them, ‘Why are you troubled, and why
do doubts rise in your minds?’” – Luke 24:38
R- Remind yourself of God’s
promises. The bible is full of promises that God makes to his people. He
promises to never leave us (Deuteronomy 31:6, Hebrew 13:5). He promises to
fight for us (Exodus 14:14). He promises to work for the good of those who love
Him (Romans 8:28). Just to name a few. These promises still reign true for us
today. He provides us with these promises to help us combat doubts and guide us
through rough times. God is the most faithful friend you could want. He will
not back out on promises.
·
“Know therefore that the Lord your God is God;
he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations
of those who love him and keep his commands.” – Deuteronomy 7:9
I- Invite the counsel of
others. God calls us to be in fellowship with other believers. And this is one
of the many reasons why. When life gets rough and doubts fill our minds, it is
useful to get an outsiders perspective. They can point out our doubts and show
us truths. They can give us wisdom. They can also walk with us through the hard
time and be a physical representation of God in that manner. God can also speak
to us through other people. When we invite the counsel of others, we are
opening doors to vast pools of wisdom that others possess. God gives wisdom
generously to those who ask, but He often uses others to provide us the wisdom.
·
“As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens
another.” – Proverbs 27:17
T- Take a step out in faith.
God will always guide us in life, but there are many times when that guidance
requires us to take a step to follow Him. We cannot expect God to do everything
for us. It is said that He opens doors for us, but He cannot make us cross that
threshold. When we face trials in our lives, we must rely on God to move the
insurmountable obstacles out of the way, but then He will nudge us to step
towards Him. Most times, we have no idea what will come from taking a step of
faith. We cannot see God’s path for us at the time we do it, but once we step,
He reveals some of the path to us. In our trials, we can look back on other
times in our lives when we took a step of faith and see what God did in those
situations. We can see how God showed up then, just like He will show up each
time we take a step of faith.
·
“For we walk by faith, not by sight.” – 2
Corinthians 5:7
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