Joy And Pain

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com Joy And Pain

I have great joy, peace and hope because Christ is in my life.

Yet, there is pain that never leaves me. It’s like gravity, a condition of this environment, always there, weighing me down.

I don’t want to,
I don’t feel like,
I don’t have the strength to,
are all ways the pain makes me feel.

But, there is strength to thrive in spite of the pain: His strength.

To enjoy it I have to accept my weakness and His power, allow it to align me, flow through me and make me flourish,
like a flower emerging from the weight of the earth, its roots still in but its bud reaching toward the sun.

Quite often, life requires more than I have. But, His grace is sufficient. (2 Corinthians 12:8-9)

There is power to overcome
I don’t want to,
I don’t feel like,
I don’t have the strength to.

There is power to go on
as a vessel of His Love.

I just have to go,
depending on Him.

Any Love, any Light, any Life that He can channel through me is eternally worth it.

I Can Go On

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com I Can Go


He didn’t want to.
 
The Christ, the God-Man, the highest form of existence did not want to do what was before Him to do.
 
“O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” -Matthew 26:39
 
Yet, His love for the Father and for you and I prevailed. By it, He steeled Himself in the face of unparalleled and incomprehensible suffering and chose to trust and obey the Father, to fulfill His ministry and finish His redemptive work.
 
I am tired. I am frustrated. I am discouraged and this remembrance is an encouragement to me.
 
Surely, with there being even more grace towards us now than there was before (John 4:12), I can endure these comparatively light and momentary afflictions: I can endure fatigue, feelings of failure, discouragement, difficult and devious people. Not seeing the end from the beginning, I can trust the Father, I can hope, I can love, I can work His fields, I can keep my hands to the plow of His redemptive work no matter how small or fruitless my efforts may seem.

I can go on.

Jesus is my example, my model and my guide. He is the person I want to become –to attain to His resurrection, to be like Him: righteous, just, loving, faithful –altogether fit to rule. He is my prize.So, even though I don’t want to right now, I press.