In case you forgot.

Just a quick post today.

Yesterday I shared about Paul's message in Athens that God has a purpose and desire for us to find Him easily. In today's text I read that God spoke to Paul while things were difficult for him and this line from God stuck out, "For I am with you."

Life is difficult right now. Church is difficult. There are struggles and obstacles and opposition coming at us so fast and from so many different directions it's hard to even focus on one of them. At times it feels like I'm floating in the ocean... like on one of those movies... just me, treading water in the middle with no one around. No land. Nothing to rest on or hold on to. Just water, water everywhere. I ask God to throw me a life-preserver, something to allow me to rest a bit and catch my breath. But He doesn't and I wonder why.

I am with you.

We often want God to get us out of our predicament, even if we got ourselves into it. We want Him to come to the rescue and throw us a line!

I am with you.

I want God to show up, guns blazing and wipe out everything and everyone who is opposing me. But He doesn't. And maybe it's because He's not sitting in heaven looking out at those whom He could chose to rescue and those He will let flounder for a little while longer. Maybe, as hard as it is to understand, maybe He's with us. Maybe He's going through the same garbage with us. The only difference is He knows what's over that next wave. He knows what's coming around the next corner or over the next hurdle. He knows in what direction the land lies.

I'm guessing He's pointing. He's coaching. He's encouraging. He's prodding, "keep kicking a little bit longer... you're almost there!" All I want is a life-preserver to rest and catch my breath, but He's using the opposition to build muscles I didn't even know I had.