CrossWalk

I received this on an email twice in the past 2 weeks and I thought it was really awesome. I am sorry I can't give credit for the drawings, I can't find out who made the cartoon but it wasn't me!

The caption said, "We complain about the cross we bear but don't realize it is preparing us for the dip in the road that God can see and we cannot!"

And now my spin on it is:

We shouldn't ask for Him to make the load lighter, instead we should ask for more strength. We should ask to feel His power & presence with us more right? We should ask for Him to take over and make our struggles be a testimony to the strength He'll provide. Being able to be resilient throughout our storms, will show God's power in us.

I heard one time (but I don't know where I heard it, sorry...so I'll just give credit to God since any Truth was created by Him) that, "To stand up against Satan - we need to kneel before God!!" I loved this. It doesn't ask us to quit and just say God take this away. It says God make ME stronger through you. Bring the rain, but bring me a raincoat and umbrella! :)

When we are weighed down - we just need to kneel and rest and let Him give us more to be

able to endure.

I Peter 5:9 says "resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are underoing the same kind of sufferings"....

Most people get this same message from the pictures --- but something I noticed that nobody ever talks about is that in this email there are people all around this guy in the picture struggling with their crosses too. Why are they not encouraging each other, standing closer! We don't have to go through anything alone. Yes, we have to carry our own cross (with God) BUT He gives us each other for a reason. Suffering is our common bond as believers!! It's helpful to know we're not alone in our suffering! We need to encourage each other and talk about our suffering and be relatable and open (not pretending we have it all together) and "embrace" the challenges (not enjoy or like them) but just accept them ...

Suffering for your faith in christ, is part of being a recipient of God's grace!!!

True and sufficient grace is given to us through Jesus. On earth, we are all under suffering. So we need to help each other along the way to make the load *feel* lighter! and remember that the big picture is that yes we might be suffering now in the short term BUT we'll have glory for eternity. We must be long term thinkers!

So enjoy today's lesson (It's God's lesson, but I'm just learning it!) to whomoever reads this! :) If nobody does - I am happy to post it for me! It's something I need to remind myself about constantly! Happy Wednesday!