Just thinking, I was remembering back early in my relationship with the Lord. How I had this thought of God saying, "We are going to do this the easy way or the hard way". I still believe that, there are lessons in life we have to learn to grow in Him, (and we never stop growing). If we choose not to learn, then God will allow stuff in our life, (usually by bad decisions we make without Him). Those things He will use to grow or teach us.
Romans 8:28-29 "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters."See Gods purpose for us is to make us like Jesus, same way Jesus was just like His Father, He said, "If you have seen me, you have seen the Father, The Father and I are One". He will use all those things to grow us into the reflection of Jesus He has called us to.
So in my early thinking, I thought that if I spend more time with Him in the Word, prayer, and being with other believers, that I could avoid a lot of "The Hard ways". But there are some lessons we have to go through, to experience them and through them see Gods hand and become our faith.
Its one thing to think how you would react to a situation, but its totally another thing to go through it and put your faith to work. We would all like to think we would do this or that, the right thing, but in truth we don't know until the rubber meets the road, our faith gets put to the test. Its necessary for our growth. It may not be easy, but we don't go it alone. He has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. In that we know we can do it. He doesn't usually put out the fire, but is in there with us.
Just because we give our life to Him doesn't give us an easy road, in fact it usually gets harder, because we are going against the grain of the world. Jesus said Take heart, I have overcome the world!
We can do it with Him walking with us, sometimes carrying us. Always remember, Gods Got This!
Stay Blessed, PJ