Journey of a Thousand Miles

Ever feel like God is holding out on you? I think we've all felt that way at one time or another. Like He has chosen to ignore our prayers or He purposely doesn't answer them, and somehow we think He's punishing us for some sin we did. It's easy to think this way because maybe at one point our parents held out on us out of punishment for something we did wrong, but we have to remember that our Heavenly Father never withholds anything that is good for us. He promises to bring all things to good. He promises to provide for our needs. And sometimes we think we need something when we really don't. Or maybe there is something that we need that God isn't answering, like our health or a way to pay the bills. Sometimes God chooses not to heal, but He still promises to use all our situations for good, even the bad situations. I always think I trust Him until He takes away the one thing I think I need. That's when my faith is tested. I feel tested lately. Luc...

Life and I are starting to become great friends. Through my process of recovery, I have been spending some time in the Word and reading about suffering. In the past, I have had a bad relationship with suffering. Actually, I take that back. After alot of bad things happened to me, I started to believe that God was punishing me, that I had done something wrong to deserve the bad things that happened to me. I grew a huge guilt complex that carried me through college and then into the real world and the more bad things that happened to me, the more I believed I deserved it and started to expect bad things to happen to me. Needless to say, suffering grew a bad name with me. So I started to read about suffering in the Bible and realized that Jesus did alot of suffering too. Alot of godly people in the Bible did alot of suffering, and that’s when I realized... suffering happens to good people too, it’s part of living in a fallen world, and none of these people were being punished by God....