Through Things
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“I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:13
“It seems like one thing after another.” “I never seem to get a break.” “I just want things to be calm for a change.” “I want things to go back to normal.” “Things seem to always go wrong for me.” “Everything seems to bother me.” Why can’t things stay the same.” Statements I have heard, and even some statements I have muttered from time to time or at least thought. I am sure many of you have uttered some variation of these statements through the struggles of your life.
“Things.” It is what you cannot specifically define. It is when you cannot recall the name of an object and you say, “You know, that thing – that “thingamajig.” Things are more than objects that cannot be defined. Things are also situations and circumstances in life that cannot be explained, overcome, or even understood.
You may be going through a difficult situation or season of life right now. You have been trying to understand and solve the situation. You may feel overwhelmed, exhausted, and your strength is almost gone. This “thing” has invaded all your thoughts, feelings, and focus. Every emotion has found its way into your thoughts, and you have lost your foothold on the situation. Oh, at times you feel in control and your strength and hope comes back but it only lingers for a short time, and you stumble. This thing is huge and is changing life as you know it. You want your old life back, but you know this thing has changed everything.
When the thing is huge and life changing like a death or illness, we tend to pray and go to God for help and strength to walk through it. Most of the time, we want life to go back to what it used to be, but in the moment, we even find it hard to pray. Usually in these times, we depend on other people to pray for us. That is why we ask for prayer.
Now when it comes to the small things – or at least we regard them as smaller – in comparison to those big things of life, we tend to depend on our own strength and power to get through them. We see God as too busy to take time with the small stuff of life. So, we worry and raise our anxiety and stress over the small things of life.
Can anyone reading this relate to what I am talking about today? Life happens continuously around us. Yes, sometimes it does seem like one trauma, tragedy, heartache, problem or dilemma after another. Why do we expect life to run smoothly according to our plan and schedule? We call it stress, anxiety, being overwhelmed, and out of control. But in reality, it is just life. We live in a fallen and broken world where nothing is perfect, and things happen without notice or reason. We do not have complete control over any big or small things of life. Life happens.
The overwhelming feelings come from believing we need to handle all things through our own strength, wisdom, and power. We may give some of the things to God, but God wants us to give Him “all things.” Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” Yes, all things – big, small, and in between. Jesus gives us His strength in all things. It is a willingness to surrender our plan, our will, our desire for a peaceful life without problems to Jesus and allow Jesus to give us strength through them. The key is through things not avoiding things. Going through things is not what we want but we know it is through things we grow and become dependent upon God. We are not able on our own to walk through the storms of life. Jesus reaches out and takes our hand and walks beside us and with us through the things of life.
You can do all things because Jesus gives you His strength through His Spirit. Trust Him. Find peace in Jesus.
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You will find all my past blogs on my website – www.livinginthedifferent.com
My Books on Amazon
Live Different Moments
Living In The Different
https://www.amazon.com/Living-Different-passages-through-sorrow/dp/0998310239/
Life Lessons of a Lone Trooper
https://www.amazon.com/Life-Lessons-Lone-Trooper-Legacy/dp/0998310255/
