Live courageously from your heart!
The new year has come and it feels like only yesterday that I was writing my 2014 year in review. Wow, where has the year gone? Since my last year in review a lot has happened on Heartstone Journey and in my own life. There is so much I could share, but here are some highlights:
One day, it’s all going fine and the next day, the bottom drops out with no real explanation. It only takes a split second for everything to change. Maybe you lost your job, or a family member had a serious accident…fill in your own personal hardship. Whether or not you are presently encountering hardship in your life, you can be certain that they will come as we live in a fallen and broken world. You can’t escape life without hurt. Jesus even said,
I’ve told you all this so that trusting me, you will be unshakable and assured, deeply at peace. In this godless world you will continue to experience difficulties. But take heart! I’ve conquered the world. —John 16:33 (MSG)
The second chapter of Corinthians provides a glimpse into the hardship Paul had to endure and walk through. Five times he received the forty lashes minus one. Three times he was beaten with rods; he was stoned; three times he was shipwrecked; he spent a night and a day in the open sea; and he was constantly on the move. He had been in danger from rivers; from bandits from his own countrymen, in the city, in the country, and at sea; and from false brothers. He had labored and toiled and had often gone without sleep; he had known hunger and thirst and had often gone without food; he had also experienced coldness and nakedness.
The very credentials that once defined his place of security and identity were dumped in exchange for Jesus. Paul made a choice with life’s hardships…he gloried in them. He came to a place in his relationship with God where God became everything good and true in his life. He began to see that God shaped his character through these hardships.
Ever wonder why God would become a man, to be born in such a lowly manner, and let us treat Him the way we did? Ever wonder why Jesus would, while existing “before all things” and holding “first place in everything” (Colossians 1:17,18); would agree to come to earth as a baby, suffer the abuse He suffered, and die such a painful death? If we continue reading in Colossians we read: “For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.”
How awesome is that?
This all happened to reconcile us to God. The tough reality is that God makes it very clear, in His word, that He is justifiably angry at humanity’s sin. All of us have sinned — and do so repeatedly. Yet He loves us sinners enough that He gave His own Son to live on earth, die on a cross, and bear sin in His own body, suffering the full weight of God’s wrath — wrath deserved by us all. Jesus paid the penalty to restore peace between God and sinners. It could not have been done any other way.
So Christmas is primarily a celebration of God’s love toward mankind. God never wanted religion (rituals, ceremony, tradition, self-righteousness, law), but an everlasting personal relationship in Truth — with us! Not emotional, time-bound, fashionable hypes, nor “visits” only in churches, but a genuine living commitment to Him. He is after our hearts!
I don’t want you to get lost in the wide scope of it all, so let me sum it up.
Goliath came at King Saul and the armies of Israel so hard that he paralyzed them with fear and panic. Then into this wild scene walks a shepherd boy named David, who didn’t tremble or run from the taunts of this giant. David saw the giant he was facing through the eyes of God, which changed his perspective. We can learn from this confrontation that David did not weigh the risk of failure because his faith was resting totally in the living God. In God, there is no real failure when we act.
Court, intimidation, financial problems, and tragedy after tragedy were some of the training grounds the Lord used to teach me to confront my fears head on. I began to understand that the giants I faced on this journey did their best to intimidate me, but I would learn that these were merely tactics of the enemy designed to keep me in fear. These lessons on the battlefield of life are sharpening my faith and building my trust in the Lord no matter what circumstances come my way. I read in a study of Matthew 6:34 that fear robs us of our today, our tomorrow and gives victory to our past.
![10 Things I Learned From Divorce About Facing Life’s Obstacles [Series]](https://heartstonejourney.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/hsj-lifes-obstacles.jpg)
It’s impossible to fully understand the sorrows of divorce unless you have journeyed through its dark valleys of anguish. I have learned that these valleys only yield a desolate emptiness to anything that was once close and dear. During the agonizing process of divorce, we do not have the capacity to clearly see that we are blindly making the choice to end a marriage, a family, and are starting a vicious circle that only erodes. People have no idea of the painful realities of what lies on the other side of the violent ripping of a one-flesh covenant God intended. Divorce is always destructive, and its ripple effects are far-reaching and long-lasting. No one would argue that love and intimacy are essential to any marriage relationship, but when we assume that love and intimacy alone will sustain a marriage is when problems begin to emerge. When we build sandcastles around our hopes, dreams, and expectations, it all is violently swept away when the tidewater comes raging in. This modern culture has reduced a God-given covenant between a husband and wife into a self gratifying contract, complete with terms, conditions, indemnification and an exit clause!
The best way I can sum up divorce is that it just sucks!!!
Having many years behind me on the other side of divorce, let this series be your first step in discovering how you can start conquering life’s obstacles.
