Struggles in Faith

The Lord has me on a journey. I believe that I have a calling on my life and I'm not sure what that means or where I'm going, but I know He's leading the way. And since He's in charge, I'm going to follow.

The problem comes when I start trying to figure out what He's up to and where He has me going. And unfortunately, this happens all too often, so I struggle: Is this real? Is it from God? Why haven't I heard from Him in a while? It gets kind of ridiculous.

The really frustrating part is that I've given things up to the Lord in the past and He's always come through. Why not this time? Why do I seem to spend so much time thinking about where He's taking me? I feel called to the Ministry but I don't know what that looks like, so what's going on Lord?

Due to all of these questions, I struggle with my faith: Do I really have faith that God will provide, that He will reveal the calling to me, that I have the patience for His timing, am I worthy, etc...? It goes on and on.

Haven't we all been there before?? You want so badly to be moving in God's will for your life but you're just not sure what that is.

I know why these struggles come and I know how to alleviate them, and I even struggle in that. The answer is Him. It's always Him and yet I still avoid the answer. Not completely - never completely - just enough that I have trouble resting in His grace and peace. My problem is that I let busy-ness get in the way of spending time with Him - in His Word and in praying. I've got to get the kids to school, I have a meeting for work, I want another hour of sleep (that's my biggest problem), etc.... I let "stuff" get in the way of the most important thing that I can do each day, which is spending time with my God.

I read a scripture last week that really brought this into focus for me: "6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4: 6-7 NLT)

I highlite the word "then" for a reason. You have do what verse 6 says in order to receive the promise in verse 7. Who would have ever thought the word "then" would have such a profound affect on my thinking. That's the key word in those two verses: if I pray about anything and everything - give it to God, then I will receive the promise of His peace and that peace will guard my heart and my mind. And my mind can be my biggest problem because the heart is usually in the right place.

The next 2 verses really add to this and drive it home, but I'll let you read those yourself.

Enjoy the ride!!!