Take this cup from me…
I shared a video on my personal instagram account about how the Lord led me to share about the suffering. The walk we are in and how I told the Lord a few days prior to what we were about to face….
“Take this cup from me Lord. I don’t like walking this, it hurts too much.” It wasn’t no surprise to God how I felt. The same way it was no surprise to God when Jesus said “Take this cup from me, nevertheless, not my will but yours be done” | Luke 22:42.
Walking the season of suffering is not much of a surprise as the Lord did tell me months ago, January and February, that I would walk a season of suffering, long-suffering to be exact. Did I like what I heard? Not so much. Did I understand what He was saying? Not really. Did I know what I would face? Not at all. But I do know that even though He warned me ahead of time, it still doesn’t feel good.
Tears flowed and flowed down my cheeks, as my husbands, when we heard what would come.. “do we really have to walk this? I just don’t get it…” The very words that flowed off my mouth. “We just have to trust Him and be reminded” my husbands words that murmured off his mouth.
When I asked God to take this cup from me and tears shedding, I couldn’t help but be reminded of Jesus when he went to the Father and asked Him to take this cup from him too. He felt it all. The anguish, the hurt, the pain, the suffering. He felt every ounce of it, yet He told God not his will but the Fathers will to be done. And that is exactly how I felt in that time. I wanted this to go away, all of it, every ounce of it, but I also wanted the Fathers will to be done however it may look. I didn’t want to stop the Fathers plan because I couldn’t bear another minute. I simply came to Him asking him to give me strength and to help me trust Him in this process.
Sufferings are hard. Thats the plain honest truth friend. Nobody wants to walk sufferings. Nobody that I know of gets excited ready to endure sufferings… but it is in these sufferings we experience a whole new training and deep encounters with the Lord, if we are listening and remaining in Him. What I mean here is, we can easily turn the other way and turn to others or worldly things (trust me, I know this all too well), or we can turn to Him for guidance, strength, comfort, peace, and joy. He will surely do it to friend.
We must first ask ourselves, who are we turning to in our sufferings?
Jesus knows sweet friend…. how you feel and what you are encountering. He knows because He walked it. He knows every feeling you feel. It is no surprise to Him. Come to Him dear sister, and lay all your burdens down. Come to Him, and lay every feeling down. Acknowledge how you feel, share it with Him, and then be reminded He is near to you dear sis.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” | Matthew 11:28-30 NIV.
I hear him telling you dear sis, “Come, my daughter, seek my face, for I am nearer than you think.” So will you? Will you come to Him just as you are, in your hurting, in your pain, in your sufferings and trials? Will you choose to seek His face in this time? Because once you do friend… you’ll begin to feel this immeasurable, unexplainable peace that overflows within you.
My feelings may not like what I am going through. My feelings may not like hearing diagnosis and surgery plans, but I choose to see the joy in it all. I choose to see that my Jehovah-Jireh provided every little thing to take care of us. He has poured out His Shalom Peace in it all to override what my feelings may feel. I can choose to give into my feelings and allow them to lead, or I can choose to acknowledge to Jesus this is how I feel and be reminded of truth.
Same for you friend, what will you partner with? Feelings or Truth?
We may not like what we are going through…. our feelings may tell us different…. but its in these moments when we want out cup taken from us, that God pours more onto us than we think or could experience elsewhere. There is purpose for the suffering. There is good that comes out of it and in it. We simply need to have our eyes fixed onto Jesus, not our suffering.