ENDORSED DISTRESS

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

Yesterday I shared a little about the “hard days”.

We all have them. 

Yet we can weather them and much like that weather, they will pass.

But as I was wrapping yesterday’s OFH, I was rummaging through some other nuggets of wisdom about “getting through” the hard days.  It is a familiar topic to this blog and my ministry.  Rarely a week goes by when I don’t have someone right at the edge of cashing out, going back to the dope, stumbling to find their footing, or dealing with adverse circumstances.

It is the nature of my work.

I mean just Wednesday night, a long-time friend and “client” landed back in jail, this time for a long time.  She was doing so well and then BANG, a mistake here, a selfish choice there, another back alley “trick” turned, another thing stolen and now her future seems pretty bleak; her storm raging.

What do you tell her? 

Same thing I have the previous times she has been in this predicament. 

Don’t GIVE UP.  Weather the storm.  

There is ALWAYS hope!

“When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” ~Harriet Beecher Stowe

In recovery circles, there is a well-worn cliché that says, “Don’t give up before your miracle arrives!” 

But it is true.

I won’t be giving up on my friend today and I WILL ENCOURAGE her that she shouldn’t give up either.  This present pain she is experiencing is not out of the sight or care of GOD and it is likely He is allowing it to help her find her way back to Him; a place she has occupied with great aplomb in times past!

Situations and circumstance often stir my memory to 2 Corinthians 7 from the MESSAGE translation: 

let the distress bring you to God, not drive you from him…

Distress that drives us to God does that. It turns us around. It gets us back in the way of salvation. We never regret that kind of pain. But those who let distress drive them away from God are full of regrets, end up on a deathbed of regrets.

…isn’t it wonderful all the ways in which this distress has goaded you closer to God? You’re more alive, more concerned, more sensitive, more reverent, more human, more passionate, more responsible. Looked at from any angle, you’ve come out of this with purity of heart.

So, whether they are hard days or hard consequences, we should never allow the distress to distance us from the Father.  Quite the contrary.  It is likely the DISTRESS has been endorsed.

And as I eluded yesterday, God loves you just the way you are, but He refuses to leave you that way.” - Max Lucado

So, let’s close this week by remembering:

We will have some hard times. 

We will face some adversities.

We will be knocked down and fall. 

Yet there is always purpose in the painful.

Remembering:

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” ~Helen Keller

Have a blessed weekend

I love you all!

OPPORTUNITIES for HOPE