I’m not Ready #Endurance
Endurance.
It’s been a minute since I’ve written my last blog! Since moving and changing positions I had to take a step back and process a lot! I found myself a little anxious about what’s ahead in my journey. However, I sit here today and I’m kind of in awe of the goodness of God. He truly has been redeeming my story and this year really is proving to be the “better” year. I kind of want to pinch myself sometimes because life just seems like pure bliss right now. Praising God in this season of building upon confidence and trust he’s given me 🙂
Have you ever heard yourself or someone else say “I’m not ready” when faced with a situation that looks like it would be hard to control the outcome? I have definitely been there more than once trying to embrace all facets of transitions life brings. I think the root of it is a control issue. I want to be able to plan things perfectly and have a slightly predictable life. However, over the past years, I’ve learned that you really can’t plan “life”. It can be frustrating at times thinking about all of our failed plans, but God truly wants us to live life forward.
Some of you may be in seasons where you feel like your “stuck”. I’ve been there and in some areas of my life still feel that way today. I had a friend paint the picture for me that God’s promise to us is that he will never leave us and that he promises to bring us through. He will always see us through. I think this is where endurance and trust come into play. Some seasons we don’t get to pick….others we choose but it still seems to suck. Endurance however, can be worldly or godly when portrayed in certain circumstances.
I heard a message at the beginning of the year from Christine Caine on the topic of endurance that I wanted to highlight some truths that I’ve been referring to this year. Endurance is defined as: the ability or strength to continue despite fatigue, stress, or adverse conditions; the capacity to bear up under difficult circumstances; not passive complacency; hopeful fortitude, actively resists weariness. I don’t know about you but endurance sounds like a whole new level of confidence to obtain in life. In life we will go through so many trials and stress and I think we get to choose what type of endurance we will execute. I think with endurance in these tests come with ambition. Christine painted that you can have actually two types of ambition too – godly ambition or selfish ambition.
Godly ambition is:
initiated by God, about advancing the kingdom, honors other, loyal, others focused, produces humility, content with anonymity, prefers others, longs to please God, is patient, prioritized obedience to Christ, is about reaching the lost, loves people, involves dying to self, thinks of the next generation, if fueled by love, is filled with grace, is faith full, is hope saturated, is bible based, is Christ-centered, is spirit empowered, is willing to lay down ones life, is willing to pick up ones cross, is willing to be a living sacrifice, lives for the glory of God alone.
Selfish ambition is:
Driven by self, about building a personal empire, competes with others, opportunistic, self focused, prideful, wants the spotlight, uses others, pleases man, is impatient, will compromise to advance, is about growing my followers, leverages people, gratifies self, indulges this generation alone.
I’ve been challenged this year on this subject and am still learning that it’s okay to not have “mastered” the right type of ambition or endurance in certain circumstances. He calls us to live forward with these truths in mind and they really do help us to figure out the roots of how some of our decisions are made. I’ll never forget my early college years where the truth was whispered “how you catch something is how you keep it”. Ambition and endurance play such a part for situations where you can’t control and aren’t ready for. Our twenties are filled with so much uncertainty and transition which I’m learning these two qualities play a huge part. Let’s all be encouraged that even in the waiting, we can build upon the right confidence today. Diamonds are built under pressure right?
Till next time,
Xoxo
Ruth C 🙂