Paul has written most, if not all of my favorite books of the bible. In Romans he gives us a wonderful outlook on struggles.
“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”Romans 5:3-5
"But we rejoice in our sufferings," has there ever been a time when something was going completely wrong in your life ,and you thought "wow I am so lucky?"
No, because as normal human beings, when things go wrong we get angry. We blame our friends, our family, and even our God for the storms in our life.
However, what if for once when we struggled we rejoiced. I'm not saying when we lose a job we should throw a party, but instead we should be thankful for the opportunity for a new beginning! Struggles are just a test of how strong our faith is. We should feel proud that Satan sees us as such a threat that he tries to put us down. Struggles always seem to come along when we are happy in our walk with Christ. That's because when you step out for the Lord, the devil steps out to get you down. He knows if he can put you through something horrible you will end up angry with God.
Being a girl who grew up with many storms, and with some of them still raging, I have learned the only thing to do is to thank God. Thank him for the strength to get through the storm, thank him for the storms that are yet to come, and for the storms that brought you where you are today. For with every storm we gain knowledge, and out trust in the Lord grows stronger. Paul suffered greatly throughout his life for the Lord, and never once felt sorry for himself, or blamed someone else. Not only did he sing praises to the Lord in prison, but as soon as the cell doors opened he was preaching the word again!
That's why I strive to be like Paul. I want my suffering to strengthen my faith, but also show others how God is working in my life, and has pulled me through unbelievable struggles.Now every time I lay down at night I think God not only for my blessings but for my everyday mishaps, frustrations, and heartaches! I know that without them I would have no faith, and with no faith no trust in my God. So even with the storm raging I will raise my hands to the Lord above.
