Food for thought... life stinks sometimes

That's what I have to say, life stinks sometimes...

Or if you prefer, life's rough get a helmet, that works too.

I'm rather frustrated with life right now... things don't make sense, a lot of things are aggravating, and hello I'm taking 18 credit hours and doing a whole lot more than I should be doing so I'm kind of permanently stressed... but I have hope

As I was doing my Bible study tonight I ran across some things that stuck out to me. I started studying Proverbs this week. I'm not very far yet because the few chapters I had already read, I went back over tonight... here's what I found...

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline"
-Proverbs 1:7

"Whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm."
-Proverbs 1:33

"He holds victory in store for the upright"
-Proverbs 2:7

"for He guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones."
-Proverbs 2:8

"In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight."
-Proverbs 3:6

Just kind of some food for thought when life gets rough and things don't go the way we want them to. Or when it seems like we're carrying too much and just don't want to any longer. God is always there and He is faithful and awesome!

But wait, there's more. I read The Shack a few months ago (if you haven't read it, I encourage you to - great book!). There was a lot that stuck out to me while I was reading.

"... consider this: when all you can see is your pain, perhaps then you lose sight of me?"
-pg 98

"... pain has a way of clipping our wings and keeping us from being able to fly... and if it's left unresolved for very long, you can almost forget that you were ever created to fly in the first place."
-pg 99

"Remember t his, humans are defined not by their limitations, but by the intentions I have for them; not by what they seem to be, but by everything it means to be created in my image."
-pg 102

For my fellow control-freaks out there, this one's for us!
It was true. He spent a lot of time fretting and worrying about the future, and in his imagination it was usually pretty gloomy and depressing, if not outright horrible... "It is your desperate attempt to get some control over something you can't. It's impossible for you to take power over the future because it isn't even real, nor will it ever be real. You try to play God, imagining the evil that you fear becoming reality, and then you try to make plans and contingencies to avoid what you fear... The person who lives by his fears will not find freedom in my love. I am not talking about rational fears regarding legitimate dangers, but imagined fears, and especially the projection of those into the future. To the degree that those fears have a place in your life, you neither believe I am good nor know deep in your heart that I love you. You sing about it, you talk about it, but you don't know it."
-pg 144

At the time I read this book, my relationship with God was not as strong as it is now so this passage hit home, hard!
There are always going to be things in life that we want, things that make us extremely happy and we can't imagine anything better. We try and try to give it to God, to trust Him with it, but we still want control. I think once we get to the point where we can say, "Okay God, it's yours... if it turns out the way I want it to, AWESOME! But if it doesn't, I will realize that it only means You have something greater in store for me."

Just some food for thought.