When You are Barely Keeping Your Head Above the Surface

There are days when discouragement settles in like a dark cloud and it seems as if my responses to everything are not what I want them to be. 

I feel irritable and defensive, prickly and ready to snap or weepy and sensitive to everything. Those are the days when I feel like I'm barely keeping my head above the surface of life. My desire to walk like Christ does not line up with my real and imagined failings as His child.

I feel frustrated that the path chosen for me has not been a walk through the meadow, but one of hard things and struggle.

On those hard days of bad attitudes, whining, prickliness and striving, I'm tempted to ask the Lord, "What in the world were you thinking?" "I am not cut out for this." "I feel like a weed."

I look at others and wonder why they have it so easy. I can fall into the thought pattern of "I'm a failure," but then I remember Philippians 1:6. " I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

And that's the good news for all who follow Christ. He is not done with you yet. He is working in you and through you to accomplish His purposes. He is molding and shaping you into a person who can shine for His glory.

It may seem as if you are struggling to keep your head above the water, but you are not alone in that struggle. As you turn over those bad attitudes and hurts and thoughts, He is holding you up and helping you.

And as we continue to work our way through the difficult things and come out the other side, we will be stronger. He can mold and shape and change those attitudes and behaviors and struggles. As we trust Him and allow Him to work in us, we will become more like Him.

And we will no longer feel like we are sinking, but we can move forward in confidence, knowing that He is helping us soar.