Rough Season

 This semester has been the best, most defining of my college experience thus far. I have been victorious in many battles. However, it has also been tremendously hard at times. It has mostly been because of financial circumstances, but a lot of other things have come up to make life here a little harder.

So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.

To put it plainly, it has really sucked! 

One thing that I've noticed myself doing is separating reality from the gospel. What do I exactly mean by this? I'm simply talking about the fact that when we go through tough situations, as humans, we tend to separate what's going on in our physical lives on earth from the reality that Jesus came (as the perfect man, lived a perfect life, endured nearly fatal suffering for our sins, died with those sins, and was raised to life three days later, therefore) having victory over ALL things, even our circumstances. And if God, gave His perfect son in exchange for our imperfections, shouldn't we expect Him to give us so much more??(Romans 8:32)

The reality is the gospel.

We cannot continue to live like those are totally separate things. As a believer, we live by FAITH and not SIGHT. Though things may seem bad, our treasure is in HEAVEN! Our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:12). The enemy will consistently try to tell us through our circumstances that this life is all we have; that it is our reality. There is no eternal peace. There will always be suffering. That's not what our Lord tells us in His word! The reality is 1 Peter 1:6-7 as stated above. These trials build our faith until we are rescued and brought home! We have to hold on to the real reality. Jesus wins. His love never fails.

  Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. -Hebrews 10:23

While I'll admit that this has been a crazy semester, God has promised His children who fight the fight of faith, that we will one day be with Him. Money cannot buy perfect love like His.

So until that great day brothers & sisters, PRESS ON! Philippians 3:13-14