Daily Devotional – 5/29/18 – Don’t give up because it hurts!

You cannot give up just because it hurts. Beloved, do you not realize that in order to get what you’ve been praying for; you might have to be stretched, broken, bruised, lied on, feelings hurt, broken promises and/or left by yourself? Do you understand that when you pray for guidance, there may encounter some grief and groans? Do you not get that when you surrender to God you may come across some suffering and sacrifices? Do you really not comprehend that when you are trying to recover, there may be some feelings of regret? Or how when you’re trying to get clean, confusion shows up? Or when you decide to abstain from what you’re addicted too, you find yourself easily angered? Being honest sometimes hurts. Getting to the right level of righteousness might reveal some rebuke, you were not expecting. But you cannot give up.

Baby, if I can be transparent for a moment; there are some days I want to give up. Yea, I may be in ministry, I may look strong, I may have a smile on my face and a prayer for you on my lips but there are some days, I don’t want to be holy. Why? Because it is painful. Painful in the physical and painful in the spirit. And, if you didn’t know this; a spiritual being who has been called to lead, encounters more pain. You may not believe this but when we get in the midst of your fight, we get hit too. It is part of our calling but if I give up every time I feel a little hurt and pain, I’d never make it. It is the same for you. I’ve come to understand that when I pray for enlargement, God has the need to stretch me in some places that can accommodate my blessing. Look, when a woman is in labor, her body has to stretch and be pulled in order to push out the baby. Even if she happens to need a C-Section, her body still has to endure the stretching and the pulling. In other words, pain. Without pain there is no produces of purpose and without purpose there is no growth. What I need you to get is … You cannot give up simply because it doesn’t feel good to you. Well, technically you could give up but then you’d still be in the same place wishing you would have allowed God to work. So, I’ll end it like this. You can’t give up because there is too much on the line in regards to you!