Embracing Trials

Psalm 71:20-21


"Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up. You will increase my honor and comfort me once again."

True confession here - most all of my life I just was never sure I had what it took to make it, I mean really make it in life. I grew up with this message that I just was not good enough and that life is measured by success and achievement. Sound familar? At times I would experience moments when what I offered to others was very very good and oh to hang onto those moments. But they were fleeting and for whatever reason I did not absorb them deeply into my heart, instead I would rush into the next thing trying to prove my worth.
I understand now that the only way to know I have what it takes is to be tested, to face trial after trial. And really, it's not just a issue of achieving to prove worth, my true worth rests in who God is, what He has done for me and who I am in Him. Read through a couple of my favorite quotes;
"Hope knows that if great trials are avoided, great deeds remain undone and the possibility of growth into greatness of soul is aborted. Pessimism and defeatism are never the fruit of the life-giving Spirit, but rather reveal our unawareness of present risenness." Brennan Manning from Abba's Child

"A warrior must develop an un-yielding heart. This is where he will be most profoundly tested. Above all a warrior learns to yield his heart to nothing. Not to kill his heart for fear of falling into temptation, but to protect his heart as a great resovior of passionate strength and holy desire." John Elderedge

I will write more, but I know as a Valiant Warrior I was meant to fight in battle, have adventure in my life to keep my soul alive and alert and to have a beauty to rescue. Trials are my friend!