Just Keep Going

2 Corinthians 5 says that “as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience, and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God…”  You get the point.  No matter what we are going through in life, we need to commend ourselves to God.  The word “commend” means to represent as worthy, qualified, or desirable or to express approval of, praise.  No matter what we go through in life, we need to praise God and represent him as worthy.

We all go through good times and bad.  I’m sure that the “bad” times in my 23 years are nothing compared to the “bad” times of people around the world.  I’ve been fed, clothed, cared for, loved, and educated.  And that’s just the beginning of my blessings.

We were going through 2 Corinthians 5 in bible study a few weeks ago, and we were talking about how so many people just coast through the good times in life; a good time comes and we relax.  God is taking care of us, life is good, and we forget (or choose not to) read our bible and get lost in prayer.  I know that when I’m going through a tough time, I turn to God.  I pray to be comforted.  I pray to be loved, and held, and I pray for God to take the hurt away.  When life is comfortable I don’t think about God half as much and just go about my daily life.

Now obviously this isn’t the way it should be.  We should look to God everyday, no matter the circumstances.  I was thinking about this hill by my parent’s home that I rode my bike on everyday one summer in high school.  We live back in a little neighborhood that there is only one way out of, so that’s the way I rode everyday.  But this route out of the neighborhood, requires you to go down one hill and then immediately up another.  At the beginning of the summer I would coast down the hill and then struggle up the other side.  The hill was big enough that sometimes I had to get off my bike and walk it up to the top.  After a few days or weeks though I realized that if I pedaled while I was going down the hill, if I built up enough speed, then I could make it to the top of the next hill and stay on my bike.  It was exhilarating pedaling myself faster down the hill, and I could make it to the top, but it still wasn’t easy.

That’s the way our faith should be.  We can’t just sit back and enjoy the ride when life is good.  Instead, we need to read our bible and continue to pray.  This way when the tough times come we have our sword ready.  We continue to work through the good times and even though the bad times are still a struggle, they become doable, bearable.  Making it a habit to seek God in the good, means we’ll be that much more likely to do it in the bad.

“Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.  Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.  In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.  Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” ~Ephesians 6:13-17