Got Hardness? Its Gonna Get Better
I grew up in Washington, DC, and started walking to school as a child in the 1960’s. When I visit DC now, I am always amazed at how far I walked to school. The teachers always told us we had it easy compared to previous generations, so I never gave it much thought.
It was a world of concrete playgrounds, bullies, four channels on a black-and-white TV, and no air conditioning. I don’t care what those teachers said. Sometimes it was hard.
I am a Baby Boomer. In many instances we eliminated hardness from our children’s lives but in retrospect, it was overcoming hardness that enabled us to thrive.
I am learning -kind of late in the game- that sometimes you have to allow life to be hard for those you love. The Lord is often at work in these processes. (Philippians 1:6)
I read in the Bible that God did not drive out all of Israel’s enemies in the Promised Land because he wanted the generation that had not known war to gain battlefield experience. (Judges 3:1-2) Let that sink in for a moment.
Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman put war in perspective: “Even success, [in combat] the most brilliant is over dead and mangled bodies.”
God is love, but God prepares, enables, equips, qualifies, and propels His people forward through hardness.
GOT HARDNESS?? Be encouraged. Hardness does not last:
To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven. (Ecclesiastes 3:1)
Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers them out of them all. (Psalms 34:19)
Why are you in despair, my soul? And why are you restless within me? Wait for God, for I will again praise Him For the help of His presence, my God. (Psalms 42:11)
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28)
God Bless! Press On!! Kevin
