When boasting is not a sin..

This semester has been a tough one. I shed many tears, had many frustrating conversations with God, and at many times I felt like giving up. In this season of broken-ness I gained a new perspective on my identity. Even more of my weaknesses were revealed and a whole new bunch of convictions to strengthen them came along. It was a time of testing- I was constantly prodded with the simple question "Do you trust me?" whenever I was tempted to worry or stress or just stop trying. The circumstances always seemed so outright crappy and everytime I looked around I saw people who had life so much easier than I did at the time and envied it. Oh how I envied it. I tried not to- I asked God to keep teaching me these hard lessons and prayed dangerous prayers everyday that he would keep revealing to me the things I needed to deal with. Well he sure did- but sometimes I couldn't help but wish that things could be easier.

Reflecting on my semester and reading through old blog posts it is easy to see his strong hand breaking me, repairing me, and guiding me through the narrow gate this entire time. He taught me new things about loving others, loving him, and loving myself as he loves me that I thought I had already learned. I do not regret any of the hard lessons I learned, but am so very thankful for the "holy spirit surgery" I received. Even through the difficulties I endured that were not under my control, he taught me how to delight in him and find hope in dim looking situations.

I am realizing with every coming day just like Paul how very weak I am without God. The desperation for him to help me get through every day just keeps growing; He has the strength to carry me through, and I will boast of that. My God is loving and powerful and I need nothing else but him.
He chooses to lift us up in even the roughest points of our lives and in some way always uses it for GOOD- and that my friends is a cause for rejoicing!

2 Corinthians 12:9-11

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. ¹⁰That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose

Its all for your glory. I am nothing without you.

Tess