For anyone who has ever actively attended church, or Sunday school, you've heard different "cliche-like" terms that have become commonplace in the church.
For example,
"I'm too blessed to be stressed, too anointed to be disappointed," or
"If it had not been for the Lord who was on my side, where would I be?"
or my personal favorite,
"God is good, all the time and ......c'mon you know what to say....all the time, God is good." RIGHT!!! :-)
And, while most of these terms are based on scripture or someones personal testimony, they often are repeated in concert by the church with no real connection to the message behind the cliche. In some cases, they have become ways for people to sound and be, what I like to call, "churchy."
As you develop a personal relationship with God, our creator, you start to get a better understanding of what people really mean and feel when they say things like that.
YOU start to understand and even witness the actual goodness of God in your own life and even through the difficult times, you learn that God IS good!
Well, I was thinking about where I am right now and what I should blog and one of these "churchy cliches" came to mind and it is reflective of where I have been and where I am and probably where I'll continue to be.
"If He brought you to it, He'll take you through it!"
This message popped into my mind and I started to think about all the things He (God) had brought me TO. For the purposes of my relationship with God, I look at "brought me" the same as "allowed." I believe that God, in many situations, ALLOWS us to endure different situations and doesn't necessarily bring those situations upon us.
Nevetheless...
He "brought me" to a period of unemployment and "lack," but eventually, I walked with Him through it and now I'm gainfully employed.
He "brought me" to a period of loneliness and heartache, but as I continued to keep my eyes on Him, I'm experiencing more joy in my life because I'm surrounded by love from family and friends.
And those are just two examples of how I've witnessed this saying in my own life.
Usually, people use this saying to encourage others during times of hardship and suffering.
We are encouraging them to keep their focus on God and He will bring us through every situation because He will never leave us or forsake us.
But, recently, I've had to shift the relevance and application of this saying to my life right now.
Now, I'm at a place where God is actually bringing me to some of His PROMISES for me!
YAY!!
So many incredible opportunities to live out my dreams and to fulfill His destiny for me, are right at my fingertips, and I'm excited, but somewhat fearful of what lies ahead.
So, when I think about the phrase, "If He brought you to it, He'll take you through it," I think it also applies to the good times and His promises.
Often, we are more fearful of the promises than we are of the pain.
Our pain becomes so much of a consistent part of life that we can't imagine a life without pain and heartache or disappointment.
So, when we begin experiencing the harvest season of life, we can't even believe that God really does allow His Son and sun to shine in our lives.
So we become afraid instead of believing that if He promised it and brought it to us, then we will get to the other side of that promise into destiny!
The good news is that, if we are in relationship with Him, God will walk in front of us allowing his favor to go before us into places that we would never imagine and He's walking beside us to help us learn how to experience Him through faith.
If He brought you to it (allowed it to happen in your life, sent his abundant blessings your way, answered your prayers, making all things work together for your good), then He will bring you through it (to a place of destiny, fruitfulness, and joy).
