Borrowed-

I am sharing some encouraging words I found today. It was meaningful for me when I stumbled upon this blog..a timely stumble.  Here's hoping someone else can use it. The author is Neil and you can find him at: http://neilshead.blogspot.com/  [Neil's Notes] I have read no further. Explore  if you wish. JH

 ..when life gets really difficult, don't jump to the conclusion that God isn't on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner.(The Message) . James 1:2-4: Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way. (The Message). Passages like these press us, they force us to ask the hard questions, like, "Am I really committed to God or am I just playing?" They ask us to look deep within our hearts to make sure that we love God, even when our roses have thorns! I know that in time all things will work out, but getting there is uncomfortable and irritating, can I praise God when I'm mad at life? I think so...I just have to do it by faith:)  Neil's Notes