Burdens and Battles

When I say burdens, I don't mean the kind we carry out of obligation or any other kind of worldly burden. I'm talking about God-given burdens. The kind he places on our hearts and in our spirits for the work he's given us to do and the calling that he places on our lives.

No, we won't always feel the weight as heavily and sometimes it won't feel like a weight at all. Matter of fact, MOST of the time, our God-given burdens are a blessing to our lives in ways that only we and God fully understand.

Along with our burdens that are blessings, we also have battles. Elder Bro. John R. Crist spoke last night about the PROCESS we go through to get to our PROMISE. What a process it is indeed. Can I get an amen?!

As he said, we all LOVE the promise part of that. What about the process though? We resist it. It's not comfortable and it certainly isn't easy.

God places a burden within us for a particular person or group of people or a particular area of ministry, but most of all he gives us a burden for souls. Is that a "bad" burden to have? MOST DEFINITELY NOT. He places those things within us to propel us toward what he has pre-destined us for. We MUST go through the PROCESS to get to the promise.

Sometimes, that process, feels like an all out war. We go through hills and valleys in our process. We have high times and we have low times. We have times where we feel just so absolutely broken that we feel like we couldn't possibly be of any use to anyone. Then we have times where all seems well with our souls, times of peace. It's all a part of the process and the process comes with battles. As does ANY THING WORTH HAVING or DOING.

We MUST have grit and determination in the process. We can't ever give in when the battles FOR our burdens seem almost more than we can bear. We can't ever throw in the towel when the going gets tough. The tough just have to GET GOING! When God calls us, he doesn't promise us smooth sailing on a cruise ship! It's a battle ship! One that he FULLY equips us for, IN THE PROCESS.

Don't ever think you don't have all you need to face and conquer every battle that comes your way. God equips us when he fills us with the holy ghost. We may be broken, we may be "imprisoned" in our circumstances, but we are FREE!

There's no battle that he'll ever ask us to walk through that he hasn't ALREADY given us what we need to succeed through it. Actually, and most of the time, he gives us what we need in our CURRENT battle to succeed in our NEXT battle. Catch that. Don't ever think God wastes your pain. He has a purpose. He's making you, shaping you, molding you, building you and PROCESSING you to BECOME through the battle.

Fight the good fight of faith and be a good soldier in the army of our Lord. If He's given you a burden, rest assured battles will come along with it, but there will NEVER be a battle so great that he will not walk with us through, cheering us on in the fight, every step of the way. Right when we want to give up is when he'll come in and show us that our battles are never fought in vain and that he has a purpose for them all. In those moments is when he comes in, picks us up, dusts us off and gives us strength to fight another day.

I salute all my brothers and sisters who fight this good fight day in and day out. Fight on!