Long-Suffering by Kaitlin Pridgen
Long-suffering.
The definition of this word is every bit of what you'd expect. Webster defines it as “patiently enduring lasting offense or hardship", but to be honest I've never known a human who patiently endured hardship.
I've found myself asking God "why" quite often lately. I've actually asked him more in the last year than ever before in my life. I've found myself in a season of long-suffering that seems as though it will never end. Financially and emotionally, the struggle is all too real.
A year ago I was blessed with my grandparent’s old home. I never anticipated that while working to restore a home I would be restoring my faith as well. From balancing bills for two residences, to a career, to parenting, y'all it's been hard. I have felt like I dove head first into a valley and pitched a tent to stay for a while.
So often I question why God hasn't pulled me out of the valley. Why can't he just make things easy? I focus so much on being uncomfortable that I miss sight of what He's trying to instill in me through the refining. I've learned that our character, and our faith, are built in the valleys of life. Not in the peaks, or the profoundly joyous moments, but instead the moments where we are faced with the choice of either trusting God's faithfulness or doubting His goodness. It's built by both big and seemingly small moments where we are tempted to throw our hands up and surrender. The hard parts of life are what give us the grace to forgive ourselves and the grit to stand back up and keep going.
Job is the perfect example of perseverance and long-suffering. To lose everyone and everything you love, but still continue to declare that God will restore and redeem what was lost. He knew God was capable, he knew that God was good regardless of whether his life was or not. Job TRUSTED that the waiting and enduring was preparing him for the blessing that was coming.
I couldn't imagine being Job and enduring his season of suffering. I'm not certain I can say that I would have had the strength to keep going, but God was faithful. He IS faithful. Job wasn't promised that life would be pain free and neither have we. I stumbled across Steven Furtick's sermon from a couple of weeks ago and it literally had me struck when he said "How you process the disappointment, determines whether it becomes the faith that propels you or the fear that paralyzes you."
Imagine if Job had taken all of life's circumstances, all of the bad, all that he had lost, and stayed paralyzed in the hurt instead of fixing his eyes on the promise of God. I'm ashamed to admit it, but sometimes it’s easier to become bitter and feel sorry myself when life is hard. I want everything to be pain free and easy. I don't want to be uncomfortable even if it means that I will come out of the valley a better person.
The outcome is God's work, but how we handle the moments of waiting is ours. Will we let the disappointments of life paralyze us into a state of pity or propel us to God’s purpose? I'm not sure what valley you may find yourself in. Maybe it's depression or anxiety, maybe it's a financial burden that just keeps pushing you down under the waves. Perhaps it’s the problem of perfection or insecurity. Whatever your giant is, whatever the enemy has thrown at you, it can NOT compare to the blessing God has waiting for you. The valleys of life will never be easy, but you will never come out the same person you were going in.