Giving up is easier than trying in the beginning, but harder in the long run. If you give up you may never know what would have happened if you hadn’t given up, and keeping going may hurt in the beginning but will usually be worth it in the end. If you stop now and then later chose to start again all your previous hard work could be for nothing if you have to redo it. So in the end keeping going is the easier solution. Yes dreams, goals and ambitions can hurt; in fact they will hurt at times, but that only shows that they are something worth fighting for. Easy things are the things that fade, the hard things are the things that stick together. Fighting to keep your marriage together will be worth it in the end, fighting to drop your addiction, fighting to get the job you want, to finish school, to raise your kids right, to follow your dreams! If God is in them than they will be worth the struggle! His end is a perfect and happy ending.

Deliver Us!

The Israelite people spent over 400 years in captivity, several of those years being worked literally to death as slaves. They prayed for deliverance constantly and for 400 years nothing happened, but they refused to give in and let their oppressors win because they knew what God had done for their people in the past and that the same God would save them.
Did they have days of doubt? Oh yes! Did they have days that they wanted to give up? Definitely! Did they have days when they wondered where God was? Of course. Did that stop God from saving them? No. It may have postponed their rescue, but their complaints and cries didn’t make God stop loving them, and because He is a loving God He saved them. He didn’t even save them in a typical ‘extract the prisoners’ fashion, He destroyed Egypt with His wonders. God Almighty sent His sword to make Pharaoh let His people go. He parted the sea! Not a river! A sea! He sent a pillar of fire and a cloud to guide them! He had birds bring them food! God Delivered His people in every possible way.
Whatever you are going through- No matter how hard or painful- God will deliver you! Keep your Faith and don’t give in. Some days it will be hard to be strong or brave but you still have to keep the Faith that God has a plan. Whatever, wherever, whoever your promised land is, God is taking you there, little by little, miracle by miracle. He will deliver you.

Credit to owner for cover image

I have doubts, I have fears, I have days I don’t want the sun to get me out of bed, I have times when there is no place on earth I feel would be safe, because I am just like everyone else, the difference is that I have Jesus. I have the Bible that speaks God’s truths to me. My family and friends have struggles. The world is obviously falling apart, but we have Jesus and we know who holds our future. I see people on the news who are scared and angry, I read comments on social media that show the level of hate that is rising around us, but my brothers and sisters in Christ have Jesus and the security He brings and we know He is coming back again. This world is a big, scary, damaged mess, but Jesus is holding on to us so we will be okay.

We are all trying to hear God’s voice, to have His guidance, but as we wait and listen what happens? We get busy, we have things we gave to do and if God has not spoken yet then we feel forced to do without Him. We think, ‘I’ll go on ahead and God will catch up.’ Does that ever work? No! If going on ahead has taken you down the wrong path then you may end up with a very long trek back to the beginning where God is waiting for you to return. Or sometimes you go forward on the right path, but you go so far without taking God with you that you get used to doing things yourself. You stop asking God for His will and start doing your will and hoping God will guide you in that, not that you have asked Him to guide you in what you want to do, just that you expect Him to follow you around and go -(‘poof’) ‘what do you need’- whenever you pray. You say, ” but God has stopped talking to me.” Has He really? Or have you stopped listening? We want our way so we try to control God but that is not the answer. Unless we are guided by God we will end up where we don’t want to be. If God is sending you into a thorn infested jungle but your friends are going down a rainbow path, which guide are you going to follow? Hopefully God. Only He sees that the rainbow path has thieves and muggers and high taxed toll bridges, only He knows that the thorn path may be prickly but in the end will be safer. God knows all, so listen for the Spirit’s prompting. It may not be a voice, it may be a nagging thought, or an unignorable feeling. You don’t know how the spirit is going to communicate, that is why you need to pray about every decision and then go forward in faith.