God's Strength

Tonight our Bible study went through the first half of Colossians 1. I like it. Verse 11 was my favorite. 

"strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy,"

I've been through times in my life where I've had to see past my sadness and the darkness that seemed to be holding me back and CHOOSE joy. CHOOSE the hope I have in Jesus Christ. It's my faith that gets me through, and the Joy that God promises us in Him if we follow Him. But most of it seems to have been pretty, well, easy. I mean, it hasn't been by any means, but I see other people go through things that just look so much worse than what I've had to endure, and I think to myself "there's no way I would be able to find joy in that!" Then I remember that God only allows us to be tempted with what we can bear. All with Him as our strength of course. 

Only now, it's as if I'm praying for God to test me in such a way that maybe my heart breaks, maybe I fall apart, but that strengthens my faith and relationship with Him. He promises us trials, and I want some so I can practice having joy in the midst of struggles! 

That's weird. I don't want to pray for bad things to happen. 

I am asking God for patience and long suffering because it will MAKE me stronger in Christ. 

So I guess it's kinda like this: I look at life from a positive point of view. Why not always have joy? I want more. I want to grow. I want to be pruned. I want to grow in the Word and learn as much as I can, so that I can be given great challenges and overcome them all - with the strength of God and by His mighty power. 

Blah, that was confusing. Basically, I don't personally believe that we should seek trials out - we should always be seeking to be patient and find joy in every bad aspect of life, but not create something bad out of something that's actually pretty darn good! 

My prayer for myself, and for all of you, and for the wonderful ladies in my Family Group, is that we seek God's face in our times of struggle and recognize and embrace the joy that exists in ALL OF IT! 

Yay! I have been so encouraged tonight; so inspired. I love it! I feel God doing wonderful things amidst my anxiety and hectic life. To God be the glory!