Getting past emotions and seeing God

It is a well known consensus that women are more emotional than men. Whether or not that is actually true is still up for debate. But there is no doubt that women are emotional, and I am definitely no exception! I left for church this evening really feeling so blessed. Blessed that even though life may be difficult and busy at times, I have a wonderful Savior and Lord who loves me and has saved me. But as I drove home from church I found out that my parents had our family dog put to sleep. I was on my way at the time to IHOP to study. I got to IHOP and began reading my assigned reading for class which happened to be on the Doctrine of God. And right there, I basically broke down and started crying. How embarrassing is that. I was trying to cover it up by keeping my hair in front of my face. I read some, and then would think about my dog. And then thoughts of my dog led to everything else that didn't seem to be going right in life at the moment. The tears flowed down. My exaggerated thoughts led to me thinking that my life just didn't seem to be going as I thought it should be going. I'm not doing what I think I should be doing. I'm not surrounded by the people I think I should be surrounded by, and the tears flowed down. The thoughts of a blessed life that filled my thoughts just hours before had quickly vanished. My focus had gone from God to myself. But little did I realize that I was reading pages after pages after pages (during this emotional downpour in the middle of IHOP) about who God is. The God that created all, and is in all, and is all, is also a God who protects me, guides me, and surrounds me with His presence. He loves me, and has died for me. A God that is so indescribable and incomprehensible is also the God that puts his loving arms around me and holds me. It was then that I realized that I needed to get past the emotions and see God. Not that tears are not what we need sometime or that we are supposed to be unemotional, but that we need to see God, and to not let our pity party downpours get the best of us. I was on the right track before, I am blessed. Blessed beyond what I deserve or could imagine. And even though I don't always understand God's plan or see His hand, I know that I can trust Him and that is all that matters.

Embracing Trials

It may seem ironic to see the two words embracing trials side by side. When people think of embracing something it is usually something warm, loving and accepting. When a person thinks of a trial, they may think of suffering and hard times, so why would we want to embrace trials and suffering? In 1 Peter 1:6-7, Peter writes, "this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." I have found myself not only attempting to run from difficult times and trials but also fearful of what trials may come my way. However, we need to embrace trials instead of respond by running. Why? Because it is during trials that our faith is stretched, it is during times of trials and suffering that our faith is grown. We are brought to a place often of brokenness and total surrender to God. We learn things that we could not have learned any other way and we experience an intimacy with the Heavenly Father because we come to a place that there is no where to turn but to Him. However, when trials do enter our life, we can run, run away from God, in bitterness and anger, because we don't understand in our human minds the purpose and plan in what we are going through. We know that trials are going to come our way. So how do we prepare ourselves to respond the way we should. We need to be digging into the word, and depending on the Lord even during the good times, even during the mountaintop experiences we must not forget the One who has brought us to that place. We must not forget the one who died to restore us back to himself. We must not forget the sacrifice that Christ paid for us on the cross. For whatever trials that may come our way will never compare to the suffering that Jesus paid on behalf of our sins.