Feelings, nothing more than feelings!

Frustration - Boredom - Stress - Anxiety - Sorrow - Depression - Want.  These are all emotions that we have felt at some point in our lives.  Many times they come when our expectations don't match with our realities - when our professions don't match our passions.  What are we to do when our dreams collide with life - when our hopes crash into reality?

HOPE!

Check out this amazing passage from Romans 8.16-28 (MSG):

That's why I don't think there's any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times.  The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming next.  Everything in creation is being more or less held back.  God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead.  Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens.

All around us we observe a pregnant creation.  The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs.  But it's not only around us; it's within us.  The Spirit of God is arousing us within.  We're also feeling the birth pangs.  These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance.  That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother.  We are enlarged in the waiting.  We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us.  But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.

Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along.  If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter.   He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless signs, our aching groans.  He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God.  That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

This brings to my mind, "What am I living for?"  Am I just trying to survive down here on planet earth?  Am I just trying to get by? What, or better yet Who, am I living for?

This passage from Paul gives me great HOPE for the struggles that I face every day.  Some days are harder than others.  Some days are easier than others.  But each day can be lived with hope because I am looking forward to the day when I meet Jesus face-to-face.  The trials of this life make me want to live for the life-eternal that much more.  They make me hope that much more for Heaven desired.

I'll close with this question: Who/what are you living for?