Why Do I Have to Go Through This? A 5-Day Plan to Commit Our Lowest to His HighestНамуна

DAY FOUR:

“And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart..” (Hebrews 12:1–3, NIV).

The only way we grow in our faith during stressful times in life is by fixing our eyes on the Author of it. When we are walking with Jesus, the stress and anxiety of the “what ifs” may still be there, but they are met with the assurance that the Definition and Presence of Peace Himself is right there with us.

Hebrews 12: 28–29 states, “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our 'God is a consuming fire'” (NIV). Gratitude journaling has become quite popular in our culture because truly, when we get grateful, we get good! We can see so much more clearly and with better vision everything we go through when we channel it through a lens of gratitude. And when our lens is on Heaven, yes, we are allowed to mourn the hard of this Earth, but we have an Unshakeable Eternity to set our gaze on and remember that we have so much to be grateful for.

Therefore, no matter the outcome, how long the wait, how hard the college course, how bad the diagnosis, or how sad the breakup, we can have peace during the sorrow or stress. I know it is hard to wrap our minds around this, but the more we get to know God’s Character and the Unshakeable Eternity we get to fix our gaze on, the easier it is to believe in the possibility of peace and Grace during anxiety and sorrow. When our lives are focused solely on our own peace and how we can “protect” it, instead of our eyes fixed on the Prince of Peace, we cannot really live much of our purpose out or feel very peace-filled.