2 Corinthians 4:16-17 “So we do not lose heart.  Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.  For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure”

I know I say this a lot but it is true and it is revealed to me over and over:  God is so gracious!  I came to him this morning with a cloud of despair hanging over me.  I don’t even really know why it was there except just to drag me down.  Like Eeyore in the Winnie the Pooh stories, the rain cloud just followed me around yesterday and was still there this morning.  When I prayed I was led to this passage in 2 Corinthians.  It amazes me, though it shouldn’t, that God speaks and gives me exactly what I need.  I as work through this struggle of accepting my humanness and moving beyond it into my spiritual life, this verse gives me food for the soul.  I am reminded once again that I am, in fact, human.  The blessing is that I am not only this human shell.  This shell; this human that my soul resides in will not live forever.  The struggles I experience because of it are simply a tool to strengthen my soul and to draw me closer to the Divine.  He made me and I am wonderful.  I am not perfect and I will continue to fail.  I seek to embrace these failings so that I may learn to embrace the way God made me and move into a new depth of grace and glory.

Lord,

We seek and you come.  Thank you for the afflictions that strengthen us and for giving us what we need.  You renew our souls and encourage us to keep going.  The prize of living in Glory will come, and we are blest to receive tastes of it in the here and now.  Thank you Father.  Amen.