Do you find yourself frustrated with life, going through the motions, or just feeling like you are stuck in the mud? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you are not alone. Everyone has moments where life becomes routine. Instead of a sense of excitement, there is the dread of getting up in the morning to face another day. Though we all face these thoughts and feelings, the key is to push past the way we “FEEL” and continue to move forward in the direction we believe God has asked us to go.
I had to learn this lesson. Over the past two years, I faced the worst financial collapse of my life. Every decision I made in an effort to do the right thing threw me into a worse predicament. I was so broke, I could no longer live on my own and after 11 years of doing so, I had to move in with my parents again. In this trial, I believed God spoke to me and said “Set my people free.” In my mind, I was like what does that mean? How can I set God’s people free when I have no money and have no car to get around? I have always been fascinated with new modes of internet technology like Youtube and Facebook because these are free vehicles to let ordinary people get ideas and experiences out to the masses. People have literally become famous over night because of them. I found a free blogging website that I could start sharing experiences that God has taken me through over the last 12 years to help people grow in their relationship with God and experience His very best. Within weeks, people from all over the world started viewing my blog and were benefitting from it. I was so excited. After a couple of months of writing this blog, I found myself wondering if people were really getting something out of it because I was not receiving as many encouraging comments as I did when I first started. I even took this to God in prayer. He said to me, “Continue writing…Set my people free.” I wanted to be obedient to God so I just continued to do what I knew God had asked me to do, even when it was hard to keep moving forward. I didn’t see the results I wanted to see, but in faith I kept pressing forward. Within a week or two of all these thoughts, I received an email from the editor-in-chief of a Christian newspaper company in south Florida. She had read several of my blogs and wanted me to start writing for the newspaper. I communicated with her several times and I am now a columnist writer for this newspaper company with a reading audience of over 250,000 readers. God is amazing!
I learned some big lessons through this event. One – if you are going through a difficult season and can’t figure out what God is up to, He might be repositioning you like He did me. God repositioned me to live at home and cut all my expenses down to almost nothing so that I could spend my time and energy communicating the truths I learned over the last several years. Don’t fight against God, let Him guide you and trust by faith He has a good plan even if it is uncomfortable.
Two- When God asks you to do something, keep on course until He asks you to do something else. Many times we quit before our blood, sweat and tears produce good fruit. The bible says, “And let us not lose heart and grow weary and faint in acting nobly and doing right, for in due time and at the appointed season we shall reap, if we do not loosen and relax our courage and faint” (Galatians 6:9 Amplified Bible). In other words, we will see the good things God has in store for us if we continue until the appointed time for us to receive them. I had to press through the way I felt at times and do what God asked me to do. The end result was a promotion and the ability to influence so many more people! If we get whatever we want when we want it, we become spoiled. God allows us to go through seasons of pushing forward with little or no results to teach us to trust Him by faith and not give up because the journey is difficult. This difficulty and trust in God teaches us to be grateful when we do see the fruit of our labor.
Three – When these negative feelings come into our minds, we need to cast them down and replace them with the truth of God’s Word. I had to make a decision regardless if I received positive feedback from others or not and trust that God would not lead me in this direction if He didn’t equip me to minister to His people. He will not lead you into something He has not already given you the grace and ability to do it. People were being ministered to. I just didn’t hear about it. One day, I ran into a buddy of mine and he told me he reads all my blogs and I should continue to write because it is good stuff!
The next time you find yourself in a season of frustration or you are just going through the motions, I want to encourage you to take some time and ask yourself if you are doing what God has asked you to do? Or, have you stopped? Real joy comes from walking in obedience to God and His plan for your life. You were destined for great things and the key to walking it out is obedience to God. It might be hard, but God will give you the strength to endure and live an overcoming life. I pray you will allow God to pull you up out of the mud and lead you into your destiny.
