The Hard Places

Daily Gratitude Year 12 - Day 263: Today, I am grateful for the hard places. 

We do not choose the hard places... most of the time...  unless the hard places are a consequence of poor choices. The rain falls on the good and the bad, as the old saying goes. If we are honest, none of us is "good." 

"We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins." Romans 3:22-24

I long for the day the image in my mirror reflects Him more than it does me, but I have a long way to go. Every day is a gift. With every prayerful confession there is a fresh touch of His grace and restoration. 

Elisabeth Elliot said this: "The hard place in which you perhaps find yourself is the very place in which God is giving you the only opportunity to look only to Him, to spend time in prayer, and to learn long-suffering, gentleness, meekness - in short, to learn the depths of the love that Christ himself has poured out on all of us." 

There it is. The hard places have a purpose. They are defining, refining, and teaching us to wait on God's timing. They are the seasons that help us grow more cognizant of who He is. 

Slow down. Be still. Wait. He will make a way through the "fire-swamps" of life. ("Princess Bride" reference.) 

Today, I am grateful for the hard places.