“But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.” (Mt. 7:14, NLT) When we think that the road is supposed to be easy we are set up for disappointment and a lack of staying power. The path to experiencing true life here on earth is going to be difficult. (Jn. 16:33) But, the life you really want is down that difficult path! Pain is inevitable, but gain is optional. When we run away from the difficulties of life, life is hard. When we press into the difficulties of life, life is easy. When we stop frantically trying to preserve our lives (avoid pain) there will be nothing that we are afraid of! The result of pressing into seeing change in our hearts is that good things begin to happen! Change is hard, but we are not alone. We can invite a truth teller, someone who believes in you, to start speaking into your life so that they can push us beyond our own limitations. And we can invite the one will "never leave us nor forsake us" into every difficult place as well. Lean into the squeeze, the difficulty, the struggle, and you are going to find zoe life on the other side of it!
Joshua Weir
It is natural to want to be comfortable, but your destiny is in danger if you only live in the comfort zone. Breakthrough often comes through discomfort. "The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force." (Matt. 11:12) We need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Adversity and difficulty are rich soil for growth in our lives—if we lean into God and press in to the situation. Nothing is too difficult, nothing is too hard in Christ. (Phil. 4:13) All things are possible to him who believes (Mk. 9:23). Are we willing to stick with it, press on, and stay the course in the face of difficulty? As we experience the powerful effect of perseverance, we will begin to love being uncomfortable, because we know that our persistence in the discomfort will produce transformative fruit in our lives.
God works in the day-by-day. Miracles are wonderful, but many moves of God are not instantaneous. When we confine God's work in our lives to "instantaneous only," we will actually fail to see God moving in the daily details of our lives. When we pray, God can say "yes" in a 1000 ways. Some prayers take time to come to pass because many pieces have to come into place . . . that is why we keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking! (Luke 11:9). Our prayers move mountains - and sometimes rock-by-rock! Often we have a black & white / yes & no approach towards prayer - not realizing God's "yes" can have many facets. When we change our perspective on prayer, we will notice that our approach to prayer changes; we develop an ability to pray and not give up (Luke 18) because we see the day-to-day progress from our prayers!