Trusting While Climbing the Mountain

This road has been a familiar sight lately as we travel back and forth to check in on my father-in-law and take him to visit my mother-in-law who is in a rehabilitation center for her fractured pelvis. We have all been taking a couple of days to do this each week. My mother-in-law is slated to come home on Wednesday. It's been a rough time for her as she is in pain, depressed and anxious and wanting to be home.

This week has been a rough one for me as well as the anxiety and depression in my own life has flared up. There are stressors going on that have caused some of it. Others are health issues - I think I reinjured my knee somehow, 6 months after getting Covid, I still can't taste or smell, and I'm dealing with carpal tunnel problems in my wrist. 

And I know I'm not the only one. So many people are dealing with far worse than these issues. So what is one to do as a Christ-follower when there is so much hardship in this world?

The prophet Habakkuk was facing calamity and nation-wide catastrophe and this is what he had to say. 

Habakkuk 3:17-19 ~
Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
    and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
    and no cattle in the stalls,
 yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
    I will be joyful in God my Savior.

The Sovereign Lord is my strength;

    he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
    he enables me to tread on the heights.

Joy is a choice that he was able to make because his trust was not in his circumstances, but in the Lord. God was the one who was able to give him strength, help him get up each day and face whatever came his way.

And joy is our choice too. I can't change my circumstances. I can't miraculously heal myself. I can't fix the issues going on around me. But I can choose where I place my trust. I choose to put it in a Sovereign God who gives me the strength to face whatever comes my way each day. I choose to trust that He will give me the strength to face my mountain today. I trust that He will give me the ability to climb that peak one step at a time.

How about you? Will trust Him today?