Ups and Downs

"In this life you will have troubles" (Jn 16:33) it is true that in this life we will have troubles, some of them will be of our own doing and some of them will be a result of the fallenness of this world, and some of these troubles are a result of the enemy. The truth of the matter is this, when we face troubles we can have a few different reactions, and although I'm not going to go into each of the possible reactions we could have I will write to describe some of the reactions we should have.

When we face troubles we need to first ask, what is the source of this trouble? If this trouble is caused of our own accord then we need to seek God's face for the correction necessary to grow and improve, knowing that we won't be perfect but we will be better than we are, because God has helped us to become so. If this trouble is part of life then we simply need to ask for the strength, guidance, and perseverance to move on and power through, because lets face it, with the Power of the creator of the one who made the entire universe what can stop us ("If God is for us who can be against us?" Rom. 8:31). If this trouble is a result of the enemy then we need to ask God for the strength to step on the Serpents head (Lk. 10:19) and we need to walk forth in the power that God has given us!

What am I saying? yes we can get down and we aren't wrong to do so, but we can only get down for so long before we need to realize that we have been given all authority by calling upon the name of Christ, the God-man who has defeated death itself. In the course of the past 2-3 months I've had quite a few ups and downs, some longer times than others, but the thing is that no matter what God is for us and gives us the power to walk forward in the power of Christ. How about the quest? how does this have to do with my quest? the thing is this, part of this quest is personal development, have I learned this lesson? not entirely, and the truth is that I don't think I ever will. The other part is this, whatever side of the quest I am on (pre and post completion), we will have troubles, and whatever the nature of the troubles, we need to move forward in the power of Christ.

Lucas