One of my dearest girlfriends Renea, told me tonight as we were talking about life and its difficulties that "What doesn't kill you will make you stronger or help you on down the road"....I told her I'd have to think about that one and then the Lord brought this verse to my mind and as I read it I saw something I'd never seen before. Oh, and the verse is in one of Renea's favorite books of the Bible by the way...lol
Isaiah 41:10 Amplified Version "Fear not (there is nothing to fear), for I am with you; do not look around you in terror and be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen and harden you to difficulties, yes, I will help you, yes, I will hold you up and retain you with My (victorious) Right hand of rightness and justice."
This past week we had Veteran's Day off from work and Hannah and Travis were off from school. The weather was terrible!!! All plans for a picnic outside in the moutains was definitely out!...lol So we went to Greensboro for lunch at O'Charley's and then went shopping for our Samaritan's purse gifts for the shoe boxes and then swung by movie gallery to get a couple of movies. We decided once we got home out of the cold drizzling rain we were staying in! lol! Travis had never seen the movie Hoosiers with Gene Hackman. I wanted him to see it. I love that movie! Partly because it is about a basketball team and that is my favorite sport to play and because it is a real "feel good" movie too. The movie starts with Gene Hackman aka ...the new coach...coming into this small country town in Indiana where basketball is EVERYTHING. He is not received well to say the least. His coaching style is not how "it has always been done" ...and boy do the people grow to hate him...quickly! He doesn't listen to them though. When they think he should be running plays at practice...he's running the boys....and running them.....and running them....lol. He is making sure their bodies are "conditioned" to not become tired during a game. He is also very clear that they are to follow his rules. He specifically tells them to pass the ball 4 times before it is to be shot. There is a player that thinks he can make the shot and disobeys the rules and he pulls him from the game. (that didn't make the town people any happier..lol) He is trying to condition them, and to teach them respect of authority and how to work as a team...he is trying to prepare them for the difficulties that they are going to face as they work toward the state playoffs...which they win by the way.
That is what stuck out to me in this verse...God says he will "harden us to difficulties".....He is trying to use those troubling times of life to teach us...just like Renea said, and he will even harden us to the difficulties that lie ahead. We don't have to be afraid. We don't have to wring our hands and look around in "terror" as the verse says....we can KNOW He will hold us up and harden us. This is just conditioning sisters! In the movie and in my life when I played basketball the conditioning I hated the most was what we called blood and guts...I think now they call them suicides...either way...they are painful and terrible!!....BUT....they work. Yes....they work. You may have something in your life that really is terrible. It may feel like you just cannot endure it, you can't take one more step, or deal with one more problem, not one more disappointment, not one more broken promise or empty words, not one more conflict....but dear child of God....he is hardening you and strengthening you....He is saying you do not have to be afraid. He is Just and He is with you! And You just like the Hoosiers...WILL BE VICTORIOUS!...His word says so! Amen!
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