"Who told you life was going to be easy?"

Have you ever had times in your life when one thing happens right after the other? When you feel life the waves just keep crashing and knocking you down? You feel like you are sinking and just want a break from the waves of trials that keep crashing down on you.

Thinking over this summer, I cannot remember another time when my husband and I have made so many visits to hospitals and doctor's offices with family and friends. Not to mention some difficult emotional situations, long hours my husband is working, and hard decisions that have to be made regarding the future. As someone who likes things planned out and tends to worry, taking things day by day is challenging for me. I think I need to meditate on Matthew 6:25-34 more often (sheepish smile here).

Several years ago, we were in the middle of another difficult time in our lives. I remember having one of my pity parties. After listening for a few minutes, my husband looked at me and said, "Who told you life was going to be easy?" His words brought me back to reality. For some reason I had started thinking I didn't deserve trouble in my life, and that I had been through enough. How SELFISH! What I don't deserve is God's mercy and grace. What I don't deserve is His unconditional love and forgiveness. That day my husband reminded me that sometimes life is hard- really hard, BUT we have a sovereign God who is in control. A God we can trust, and Whose plans are for our good.

Yes, I still struggle. I still worry and fall and break, but the voice of my husband that day still comes to mind and brings me back to Christ. 

Today I want to share with you a passage that God gave me last Friday. A passage that excited me, encouraged me, and gave me hope as I read it. May you find encouragement today in these verses from Isaiah 40:28-31-

 "Have you not known? Have you not heard?

The everlasting God, the Lord,

The Creator of the ends of the earth,

Neither faints nor is weary.

His understanding is unsearchable.

He gives power to the weak,

And to those who have no might He increases strength.

Even the youths shall faint and be weary,

And the young men shall utterly fall,

But those who wait on the Lord

Shall renew their strength;

They shall mount up with wings like eagles,

They shall run and not be weary,

They shall walk and not faint."