Are you struggling?

Consider Him who endured such hostility . . ., lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. – Hebrews 12:3

I was in my second year of widowhood and I was struggling. Morning after morning my prayer-life consisted of one daily sigh: "Lord, I shouldn’t be struggling like this!" "And why not?" His still, small voice asked me from within one morning.

Then the answer came – unrecognized pride! Somehow I had thought that a person of my spiritual maturity should be beyond such struggle. What a ridiculous thought! I had never been a widow before and needed the freedom to be a true learner – even a struggling learner.

At the same time, I was reminded of the story of a man who took home a cocoon so he could watch the emperor moth emerge. As the moth struggled to get through the tiny opening, the man enlarged it with a snip of his scissors. The moth emerged easily – but its wings were shriveled. The struggle through the narrow opening is God’s way to force fluid from its body into its wings. The "merciful" snip, in reality, was cruel.

Hebrews 12 describes the Christian life as a race that involves endurance, discipline, and correction. We never get beyond the need of a holy striving against self and sin. Sometimes the struggle is exactly what we need to become what God intends us to be. – Joanie Yoder

When God allows His chastening hand

To give us little rest,

His only purpose is our good –

He wants for us His best. – D. De Haan

READ: Hebrews 12:1-7

We experience God’s strength in the strain of our struggle.