Psalm 86:15 (NKJV) “But You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth.”
I decided it was time to make a change and joined a gym close to my house. I was single and on a tight budget at that time. I was living in a three-bedroom house with ONE bathroom, occupied by four roommates from college, and we didn’t have cable (way before Netflix). I was gaining a few pounds, trying to recover from my “freshman fifteen” weight gain seven years prior. “There are no excuses”, I kept telling myself. As I entered the gym for the first time that year, I was definitely out of my comfort zone, to say the least. There was a kickboxing class going on as I entered the building and the ladies looked like they were enjoying it. It looked fun too, so I decided to join them the following day.
That one class changed me. If you know me well, you know I’m a dreamer. When I get excited about something, it's all I think about until I can create a way to accomplish it. I was telling my friends that I was going to be a “certified kickboxing Instructor.” I had to participate in many classes to get the moves down, but once that happened, I was off training my friends and providing free classes for them, so I could be ready for the test and see my dreams come true.
On one occasion, I was providing a class for my girlfriends at their apartment. We had many there that were eager to learn some new kickboxing moves. That day, I decided to wear my plastic pants (these are pants designed to take off excess water weight, you sweat like crazy, however, very thin material). I remember at one point we were doing a “roundhouse kick” when all of a sudden, I felt a rush of cold air hit my bottom. Sure enough, my pants had ripped from the top of the waistband to the other side, a complete tear across the middle. I was in utter embarrassment and shock at that point, and told everyone, “Ladies, I’m so sorry, but we’ve got to keep going.” I remember the ladies laughing, as well as I for the rest of the routine, but we all continued and didn’t miss a beat! Afterwards, I remember running to my car in fear of someone seeing me, and of course the cold air.
Times like this remind me that there are, and will be, situations out of our control. We either go with it and grow in it, or we get upset and worry about the outcome. If we are believers and in love with our King, we know where our Hope should rest. Romans 5:5 (NLT), says, “And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love.” God loves us, He cares for us, and He makes Himself known to us and because of this and many other promises provided time and time again in scripture, we should never think that God will disappoint us if we put our hope in Him.
My favorite life verses are found in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18. In verse 17, it says, (NIV), “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all….” When things in our life don’t go the way we have planned them to go, we can rest assured that God is working ALL things for His Glory, His purposes, according to His riches and Glory, and THAT, my friends, is achieving for us a much greater reward! I Timothy 6:12, (ESV), takes this further to tell us, "Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses." We press on to reveal God's Glory to those around us so they can also receive the Hope of Christ and walk in freedom.
May our hope never falter as we rest in His Hope to become overcomers, even when things don’t go as planned.
As always, I’m learning right there with ya,
Thankful For His Grace,
Amy