InHisStrength's Journal

Wilderness Mentality #3

“Please make everything easy.  I can’t take it if things are too hard.”

Many times in the middle of doing something, we spent so much time thinking and talking about “how hard it is” that the project ends up being more difficult than it would have been had we been positive instead of negative. 

“For this commandment which I command you this day is not too difficult for you, nor is it far off.”  Deuteronomy 30:11 

The reason our Lords commands are not too difficult for us is because He gives us His Spirit to work in us powerfully and to help us in all that he has asked us to do.  Things get hard when we are trying to do them independently without leaning on and relying on God’s grace. 

Jesus knew that he that he was about to die so he told His disciples this:

“And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby), that he may remain with you forever…”  John 14:16

If you are a follower of God, He is in us and with us all the time to help us, to enable us to do what we cannot do.

When Pharoah let the people go, God led them not by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was nearer; for God said, Lest the people change their purpose when they see war and return to Egypt.  Exodus 13:17

You can be sure that anywhere God leads you, He is able to keep you.  He never allows more to come on us than we can bear.  (1 Corinthians 10:13)  Whatever He orders, He pays for.  We do not have to live in a constant struggle if we learn to lean on Him continually for the strength we need.  When things get hard, spend more time with Him, lean more on Him and receive more grace from Him.  (Hebrews 4:16)  Sometimes when things seem like they are overwhelming, it is because we are trying to control things that we are not able to control, but there is peace in leaning on God in the midst of a storm.  Grace is the power of God coming to you at no cost to you, to do through you what you cannot do for yourself. 

Sometimes God leads us the hard way instead of the easy way because he is doing a work in us.  God led the Israelites the long, hard way instead of the short way because they were afraid and He had to do a work in them to prepare them for the battles they would face in the Promise Land.  They were whiners and complainers.  God was concerned that the moment the Israelites saw the enemy, they would want to run back to Egypt.  They would want to give up.  I think sometimes we get scared as the Israelites did and don't want to face the past in order to heal so we just learn to cope by doing what we always have done.  We stay in bondage to our past because we are afraid it will get to difficult.  Sometimes we have to take the long way to healing by learning what God wants us to learn in order to heal.  That is why it is a process.  By going the long way it taught the people who God is and that they couldn’t depend on themselves.  Most people think that entering into the Promise Land means no more battles, but that is incorrect.  After entering the Promise Land, they fought battle after battle all of which was won in the Lord’s strength and under His direction.  In our minds we can be defeated but keep pressing on and don’t give up because God is at work. (Galatians 6:9)

Right thinking “arms” us for battle.  Going into the battle with wrong thinking is like going to the front lines in a war without a weapon. 

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  Philippians 4:13

"Battlefield of the Mind"  by Joyce Meyers