It has been awhile since I have written. It has been a hard season for me. We can now say we have officially been in Italy for 3 years. This has been my hardest late fall, winter, early spring since we have come to Italy. The pain level has been at a level I cannot tune it out and that would be above a 5 on the pain scale. Once we get to May I should start to feel better, Lord willing. Trials come in all shapes and sizes. Most of life is annoyances, which oddly enough try us the most. In reality, they are pebbles in our shoe. The more annoying the bigger pebble. :) As followers of Christ we tend to handle the big trials better, almost with a quiet resignation of, this is the Lord's Will and hope to reflect Him to the best of our ability. It helps if we feel that the trial is a short term trial. The hardest is when the trial is long term or life long. A person goes through seasons with that type of trial. Sometimes it can be handled well with a positive outlook and resting in the Lord and sometimes the season gets weary and burn out happens. It can feel lonely and be overwhelming. How should trials be handled?
Where I live, oddly enough, some of the churches are not really keen on you showing you are struggling or state how you are feeling. I have not figured out why since I have seen Italians be very emotional on a lot of things, though none of the emotion is on personal things. It is almost as if they expect a smile or everything to be fine with you personally or keep it to yourself. It is almost as if, you telling what is really going on and showing the emotion is a lack of faith in God or trusting Him. One thing is clear they do NOT want to hear about it. It is not just in Italy though it is also in America. I have had people walk away in both countries because I answered their question with honesty though not totally in full revelation. They wanted, "I am good. How are you?" I had a lady reprimand me for crying because the trial was overwhelming and told me I am to rejoice in everything. I guess in her mind you cannot rejoice and cry at the same time. :) Yet, as I am reading through the Bible in a year I see emotions all of the time. The people were raw in how they were feeling. Job is one that comes to mind. God never judged him for how he felt. He wished he was never born and that death would hurry up and come. I would say most people who struggle with pain on a daily basis has felt that from time to time when the volume of the pain is a 8 to 10 for days. Even without pain you just feeling hideous day in and day out. Or Joshua being afraid? You know how many times in that book God said to Joshua "do not be afraid or be dismayed for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go." (Joshua 1:9) Moses was so insecure that God had to bring Aaron to help him and reassure Moses that He will give him the words to say. Elijah was so depressed and discouraged that he just wanted to die. "But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, "It is enough, now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers." (I Kings 19:4) We also see emotion in the Psalms of lamenting and depression though in a lot of them they end with the psalmist praising God. God knows that life is hard and painful. He created us to be emotional.
The exciting news is we have an amazing Savior! "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:15-16)
First, we get to run to the Lord Jesus! I have begged Him to help me in English and Italian when I am just too overwhelmed. :D He truly is the only one to help. I do not necessarily pray to have the trial removed. I pray for His strength through the trial as well as that He may receive the glory through it. As a believer, we want people to not see us but the reflection of our amazing Savior. If Christ gets glorified by our trial than it is so worth it. When we go through a trial and get to share with someone what the Lord is doing through it, conforming us to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29), or how He met us in a time of need, what a privilege!
As a church what should we do? Listen and care and stop judging people! People may "look" like everything is fine with them and their family or that they are healthy, but in reality they may be one string from falling apart. Galatians 6:2 - Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Philippians 2:1-5 "So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus," People in the church do not need you to quote the reference Romans 8:28 or some other verse when someone is going through a trial. They need you to genuinely care. We are suppose to be a family not a social group to make ourselves feel good and check a box that we went to church. Please never look at others as a "ministry opportunity"! Look at the people in the church as your flesh and blood brothers and sisters that you will spend eternity with. Remember the blood of Christ is thicker than the blood of family because Christ died for us and we live through and in Him. We are to love one another with a genuineness of heart. There should not be clicks or competition in a church. There is no place for that. We as a church, a family, need to come along side people that are struggling and shoulder up under their burden. It gets tiring to carry the trial silently. We do not get Brownie Points from God for doing that. I have mentioned in other blogs that to obey the whole Bible we need to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and love our neighbor as ourselves or as Christ loved us which fulfills all of the law and the prophets. It will take us a life time and we cannot do it on our own and we won't do it perfectly, but those of us that are in Christ by accepting Him as our Savior have the Holy Spirit that helps us.
The trial is not just for the person going through the trial. The trial is for everyone that is connected with that person. For everyone that is connected with that person will be seeing the glory of God through it as you see what He does in that persons life, as you pray for them, as you shoulder up with them to help them carry this burden. All in the end will be praising the amazing God we serve. The ones that benefit the most are the ones that their eyes are off of themselves and paying attention to what God IS doing. You don't have to go on a mission trip to see God in action. You just need to be tuned into God and paying attention. Those going through the trial...keep fighting the good fight of the faith to the glory and honor of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Remember it is okay to feel and at times feel deeply. Lean in to Jesus even more on those days. :) May God be glorified and honored in all of our trials.
Where I live, oddly enough, some of the churches are not really keen on you showing you are struggling or state how you are feeling. I have not figured out why since I have seen Italians be very emotional on a lot of things, though none of the emotion is on personal things. It is almost as if they expect a smile or everything to be fine with you personally or keep it to yourself. It is almost as if, you telling what is really going on and showing the emotion is a lack of faith in God or trusting Him. One thing is clear they do NOT want to hear about it. It is not just in Italy though it is also in America. I have had people walk away in both countries because I answered their question with honesty though not totally in full revelation. They wanted, "I am good. How are you?" I had a lady reprimand me for crying because the trial was overwhelming and told me I am to rejoice in everything. I guess in her mind you cannot rejoice and cry at the same time. :) Yet, as I am reading through the Bible in a year I see emotions all of the time. The people were raw in how they were feeling. Job is one that comes to mind. God never judged him for how he felt. He wished he was never born and that death would hurry up and come. I would say most people who struggle with pain on a daily basis has felt that from time to time when the volume of the pain is a 8 to 10 for days. Even without pain you just feeling hideous day in and day out. Or Joshua being afraid? You know how many times in that book God said to Joshua "do not be afraid or be dismayed for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go." (Joshua 1:9) Moses was so insecure that God had to bring Aaron to help him and reassure Moses that He will give him the words to say. Elijah was so depressed and discouraged that he just wanted to die. "But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, "It is enough, now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers." (I Kings 19:4) We also see emotion in the Psalms of lamenting and depression though in a lot of them they end with the psalmist praising God. God knows that life is hard and painful. He created us to be emotional.
The exciting news is we have an amazing Savior! "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:15-16)
First, we get to run to the Lord Jesus! I have begged Him to help me in English and Italian when I am just too overwhelmed. :D He truly is the only one to help. I do not necessarily pray to have the trial removed. I pray for His strength through the trial as well as that He may receive the glory through it. As a believer, we want people to not see us but the reflection of our amazing Savior. If Christ gets glorified by our trial than it is so worth it. When we go through a trial and get to share with someone what the Lord is doing through it, conforming us to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29), or how He met us in a time of need, what a privilege!
As a church what should we do? Listen and care and stop judging people! People may "look" like everything is fine with them and their family or that they are healthy, but in reality they may be one string from falling apart. Galatians 6:2 - Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Philippians 2:1-5 "So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus," People in the church do not need you to quote the reference Romans 8:28 or some other verse when someone is going through a trial. They need you to genuinely care. We are suppose to be a family not a social group to make ourselves feel good and check a box that we went to church. Please never look at others as a "ministry opportunity"! Look at the people in the church as your flesh and blood brothers and sisters that you will spend eternity with. Remember the blood of Christ is thicker than the blood of family because Christ died for us and we live through and in Him. We are to love one another with a genuineness of heart. There should not be clicks or competition in a church. There is no place for that. We as a church, a family, need to come along side people that are struggling and shoulder up under their burden. It gets tiring to carry the trial silently. We do not get Brownie Points from God for doing that. I have mentioned in other blogs that to obey the whole Bible we need to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and love our neighbor as ourselves or as Christ loved us which fulfills all of the law and the prophets. It will take us a life time and we cannot do it on our own and we won't do it perfectly, but those of us that are in Christ by accepting Him as our Savior have the Holy Spirit that helps us.
The trial is not just for the person going through the trial. The trial is for everyone that is connected with that person. For everyone that is connected with that person will be seeing the glory of God through it as you see what He does in that persons life, as you pray for them, as you shoulder up with them to help them carry this burden. All in the end will be praising the amazing God we serve. The ones that benefit the most are the ones that their eyes are off of themselves and paying attention to what God IS doing. You don't have to go on a mission trip to see God in action. You just need to be tuned into God and paying attention. Those going through the trial...keep fighting the good fight of the faith to the glory and honor of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Remember it is okay to feel and at times feel deeply. Lean in to Jesus even more on those days. :) May God be glorified and honored in all of our trials.
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