At some point along this journey of growing deep spiritual roots, we’re bound to face the “hard.” Some hard feels like the kind of “wearing down of the saints,” as Watchmen Nee describes in his book on prayer. It’s the little things like broken washers and leaky tubs, dented cars and lost eyeglasses that can get the best of us.
But there is the other kind of hard that feels like full-blown assault on your spiritual, emotional, and physical stability. The kind of hard when you hear of a tragedy or experience the loss of a loved one. Face a cancer diagnosis. Rebound off a rejection. Discover the pay cut is coming your way, too.
When I’ve faced that kind of hard, I’ve threatened to all who will listen that I’m going to “quit God.” Once I even tried. There I stood at the sink, tears streaming as hard and fast as the running water cascading over the pots, yelling at God for letting my friend die and allowing his wife to become a widow with a newborn baby.
But as those words escaped the rawest parts of my wounded heart, I realized that you can’t yell at someone you don’t believe in.
You can’t quit the conversation and still be talking.
And so I realized at that moment that I couldn’t quit God because He God refused to quit me.
My faith struggle didn’t change His faithfulness.
For that, I am so grateful.
And so I’ve quit quitting God.
Maybe you need to quit quitting God too.
Because why should we try to do life without the God of the Universe backing us up, being our strength, and filling us with hope as we journey to eternity?
Hard is what we will find this side of heaven, so why do hard alone?
So will you join me on this side of quitting? The side in which you keep on believing even when you don’t get what God is allowing to happening in the hard parts of life?
The place in which we sit in the uncomfortable of our emotions without rushing to find an answer. When we wake up confused but still determine to read the Word. When we choose to believe even when what God is doing or allowing doesn’t make sense in light of His promises and commands.
In quitting our quitting of God, we refuse to give up eternal hope while embracing life in the land of the living.
That kind of hope isn’t the one you muster up from deep within your soul. It isn’t based on circumstances or feelings. It’s a shear faith kind of hope that comes from believing the promises of eternity.
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen,
since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:18 NIV
This isn’t our forever home.
This is not what we were made for.
This is temporary.
This is broken.
This is yet to see the fullness of God’s redemption.
This is yet to experience His glory.
It’s this eternal perspective that takes the pressure off of what we expect from life on this earth and God Himself.
Maybe it’s a perspective you need to cultivate too?
When the heavy and hard come your way, don’t you want to be so enveloped in truth that your emotions won’t undermine your faith?
It will only come from steeping yourself in the Scriptures today. God will meet you there. He will show you Himself. And when the hard comes, His Word will be your guide by the power and work of the Holy Spirit.
That, my friend, is really the only way to be equipped for the hard and quit quitting God.
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