Have you ever been walking through the forest and suddenly come upon an absolutely massive tree? One that you don't even need to take a second look, just the absolute size of it and you know it's been around for a long time.
And with that long time of life you know that surely that tree has survived a lot to get where it is. Drought, floods, possibly disease, it's stood through storms and winds that knocked down other trees all around it. And yet, there it stands.
A tree doesn't just become strong just naturally, no. The strongest trees have to withstand winds and storms, every time a tree survives a storm it digs it's roots deeper into the ground that is it's foundation and becomes harder and harder to dig out.
This is something I've been thinking about recently in my life and in the lives of my friends, many of us are out in college now. Working full time jobs and many of us have finally moved out. And as promised in the New Testament there will be trials, there will be storms in our lives. The question now is, are we going to let these storms tear us out and throw us around? Or are we going to dig in deep and grow stronger to withstand the next one?
The Bible has a few things to say about withstanding trials and about the strength that God will give us to help us endure. Here are just a few verses:
"So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
"He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers." Psalms 1:3
"Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit." Jeremiah 17:7-8
"Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Romans 5:3-5
That tree in the picture up there withstood its life's trials. Will you?
God Bless,
Ryan
A little bit about me:
I'm a 22 year old Christian guy, nothing extraordinary. I Volunteer with the local Fire Dept. where I lead a Fire Explorer Outpost, getting the High school kids in that are interested and giving them some training to see if Firefighting is a career path they would like to travel down.
I work at a couple other Fire Dept. besides that as a Firefighter/EMT-B. It's not easy work all the time, but it's what I love to do.
The original purpose of my blog (A Long Adventure) was to be a place to put up my stories, pictures and updates from a big Sailing trip that I was supposed to take back in the summer of 2013. But through a string of events and poor communication I never ended up going. I kept playing around with the blog putting up a little story here and there, and the end result is basically what is now an online devotional. Instead of being a type of journal for trips and adventures to different places it's become a place for me to put up the spiritual adventures and lessons that I've been through and that God has been teaching me.
I hope you all enjoy the blog, and I hope God uses it greatly to your benefit and for His glory.
God Bless,
Ryan
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