Its not easy to avoid the struggles

    I am trying very hard to avoid struggling with things in my life this year. I want to just live and enjoy my life. I still have issues and problems to face each day, but I don't want to struggle with them as I have in the past. I am going to try to deal with those issues without all of the struggles and worries that can become such a burden to me. I will try to lay my issues at the feet of the Lord and leave them there instead of struggling to carry them with me. I am uncertain of how well I will do at this. I have always been a doer and a fixer. I do what I think needs done and fix what I think is broken. It is hard for me to just leave things alone and let the Lord deal with them in His time and His way. That doesn't feel natural to me. I want to do it all for myself, even the things that I know in my heart are not meant for me to deal with. I have begun to believe that I need to live my faith more openly. I want to share my faith and love of the Lord more openly with everyone I meet, but that isn't easy for me. I don't open up or share easily with those I don't know. I now believe that I need to change that, because the Lord wants me to change. I am trying to change.

    Actually I am trying to let the Lord make the changes in me. That is the hardest part for me, letting go of the control of my life so that I am just living by faith as I am walking with faith. I think this is the next step I must take in my spiritual life. I have been walking with faith for a while now, but walking and living are as different and talking and walking. I often question myself and others about talking the talk, but not walking the walk where faith and God are concerned. Now I am beginning to see that it must go beyond that. I try very hard to walk with faith each day. I try to talk the talk and walk the walk, but there is even more left for me to do. While I have come a long way since I first laid down my burdens and truly began making an effort each day to walk with faith, I still have much further to go. I can talk about my faith and I can walk with faith, but still not be truly living by faith.

    I believe that is where my walk must take me next. I believe I must take the steps required to make my life one of true faith. I am not yet certain of what that will actually mean for me, but the Lord is. That is why I believe so strongly that I must yield to Him. I must not only lay down my burdens, but I must daily take up the cross that He provides for me to carry that day. If I am to follow the Lord then I must live for the Lord and not for myself. My life must belong completely to Him, holding nothing back from Him. I cannot continue to struggle, not against the Lord or against myself. I must continue walking with faith as I allow the Lord to show me how to truly live by faith. It sounds easy enough, but I find myself resisting it.

    To struggle no more isn't an easy thing to do after living a life that has been filled with struggles. I just need to remember one thing though. The Lord said all things were possible with Him, but He never said they would all be easy.