52 Weeks of Blogging with Hope

Sometimes it seems when we’re finally enjoying our mountain top, a mudslide washes us back to the bottom. And, that’s always fun… Not.  It can be so disheartening to be swept away from our victory after such a little amount of time. Why can’t our mountain tops last as long as our trials? Why does it seem we’re more often a punching bag, than us getting to do the punching? And why, why, is the devil constantly allowed to storm on our parade?

When we forget what trials are for, what storms are for, and what mountain tops are for, it’s easy to slip into a tantrum of “why?”. Why is this happening? I just got through a trial, why another one so soon? Why this, and why that….? If we let ourselves, we’ll be endlessly saying to God, “Why?! I thought you loved me, God.” Generally, when we say this, we’re screaming too loud to actually hear what God is trying to tell us. What are these trials for? Why am I constantly being tossed into the flames?

It feels like an endless ritual. We climb, and then fall. We climb, and then fall. Climb. Fall. Climb. Fall. What’s the point of it all? When our brain gets caught up on that one, itty, bitty question, we quickly find ourselves falling more than climbing. We start focusing on the symptoms, and our circumstance, only seeing that, and pretty soon we’re no long climbing. It’s just falling. Falling. Falling. Falling. And then splat! We hit rock bottom.

What now? 

Now that we’ve hit the bottom, there’s only one thing we can really do. Look up. From the very beginning of the trial that tripped us up, we should’ve been looking up. If our eyes stay on Jesus constantly, we’ll never have to ask why. We’ll never have to question His plan. Firmly trusting in Him will be the best thing any of us can do. We’ll turn our, “Why?! I thought you loved me, God,” to, “I don’t understand this trial, but I know you still love me and have my best interest at heart.”

Our trials are meant to strengthen our faith, they are meant to give us those spiritual muscles that punch the devil in the eye. If we stayed on the mountain top, we’d lose our muscle and starve to death. Trials are long and painful to go through, and sometimes we don’t understand the “why” of it all, but there is a purpose for each and every trial we face. When we pull ourselves out of the mudslide and onto the mountain top, sometimes God let’s it rain to wash the mud away. But when that storm clears, and the mud is gone, we can see clearer than ever that God was with us the entire time, and the trial wasn’t meant to break us, but to strengthen us.