Go Through It!

I don't necessarily enjoy going to the gym but, I know what the results will be as long as I continue to abide by the disciplines of eating properly with a good exercise plan. Many moons ago, I remember jokingly asking my 3 y.o. if daddy could sleep in his little Spider-man tent...and he with a very serious looking face said, "Daddy you can't, you're too fat." I had remembered that he probably heard me on many occasions saying that I was getting fat because my closes weren't fitting. So after prolonging the inevitable for many, many, many months...I joined a gym. I really stick out at the gym...I always find myself working out between guys who wear those "protocol gym clothes" and make 200 lbs look easy as were I am wearing a goofy tee shirt (thats Goofy from Disney) and can barely bugde 25 lbs. Having said all of that and probably realling wasting your time just to get to my point...walking with the Lord is similar to working out. When one lifts weights, the idea is to break down the muscle in order build the muscles to be stronger...after a few weeks or a month you can go from lifting 25 lbs to 35 to maybe 45, all along you wear yourself out but you become stronger and healthy of course eating properly helps along taking vitamnins. There is NO mircale pill, you just have to continue to work and work in the gym. The results will be a healthy strong body. What does this have to do with walking with the Lord...life is painful. For me all of times I didn't want to deal with pain or problems, I wanted a way out. God's way is not out but through our problems and pain. Truth is...no matter what limitation or circumstance I am struggling against, God can empower and equip me beyond what I thought possible. I need to accept pain as a part of life. Acceptance will help me live in God’s reality so I can adapt and change to the way things really are and learn to trust God. I need to welcome problems in my life as gifts from God to help me become a better Christian for His Kingdom. God sees my difficulties different from the way I do. God’s way is not out of my problems but through them. As stroms arise, either I am going lay down in defeat or I will invite God to be Lord of my entire life and lead me on...God will ge me the strength to grow through any situation. As pain and problems come at me, with God's grace, strength, peace, loving kidness... I will become a stronger Christian in this life. I need a healthy prayer life, a healthy devotion life, bieng still, and a healthy trust and dependency on God. With God I will be stronger as storms arise and things that I thought were impossible will be possible because of the power that God has. I just have to take God by the hand and with Him go through it!
-Gravy JMM