At certain times and places; God will build a mysterious wall around us. He will take away all supports we customarily lean upon, and will remove our ordinary ways of doing things. God will close us off to something divine, completely new and unexpected, and that cannot be understood by examining our previous circumstances. We will be in a place where we do not know what is happening, where God is cutting the cloth of our lives by a new pattern, and thus where He causes us to look to Him.

                                                                        -Author Unknown

God is committed to our growth.

He will choose the God-designed time and place, uniquely created by him, to draw us closer to himself. They typically are uncomfortable and unexpected. It requires a great deal of mental restraint not to push back against his dealings. We will have to make new commitments to practice the ancient disciplines of thanksgiving, praise, and worship, even when our emotions are begging us to do otherwise.

Have you perused the life of the apostle Paul lately? You will find it to be  a stunning reminder of  what spiritual tenacity looks like: his apostleship questioned, shipwrecked, beaten, imprisoned, starved, chased, stoned, maligned, and abandoned by his own men; but the consistent theme: praise, thanksgiving, and surrender comes through load and clear.  Good reminders as we begin a new year of ministry

I pray for the day when we can say with our friend, Paul, the following:

“Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me,

            My grace is enough; it’s all you need.

            My strength comes into its own in your weakness.

Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size-abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.”

                                                                                    -2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (The Message)