Every Friday features a post from one of our pastor’s wives specifically for the women of Crossway Church.

Earlier this week was hard for me, which I am sure was the case for others out there.  Not only was it stormy outside, but it felt like storms had been raging through on the inside too.  My flesh does not like these times; and sadly, it’s often proven in the ways I respond to the pressures and heat.  With many tasks on my “to do” list, I knew I couldn’t attack another item before meeting with God while my kids had their down time.  Today I was finally able to finish Elisabeth Elliot’s book A Path Through Suffering and once again she helped me gain proper, God-honoring perspective for my difficult days. 

The Lord of Heaven desires and seeks our companionship . . ., but we can never go far along the road if we refuse things that are hard for us.  Our spiritual apprenticeship is served only as we earnestly observe what the Master does and do it after Him, not asking for shelter from winds that beat on Him, but turning our faces to that wind, taking up and embracing His cross.  A glad acceptance of hard things opens the way for glory (191).

When the going gets tough, I want to flee as quickly as possible.  When the heat is turned up high, I shut down and merely cope to get by.  When answers don’t come quickly and easily, I fight to get my desires.

All that the world so desperately seeks the Lamb won, not by aggression but by surrender.  That is the principle of the cross.  It takes the weak and makes them strong.  It takes our sin and bestows Christ’s righteousness.  Out of bondage we are made free.  Darkness is overcome by light.  Loss turns into gain (192).

I can have joy in these days when it seems next to impossible because of all that is required.  I can find grace to respond godly when it seems like anyone would buckle under the pressure.  I can eperieince grace and joy when I choose to surrender to God’s will just as Jesus did.  I need the Lord in this, because it requires embracing difficulty and turning my face toward it.  Lord help me!  Help me embrace Your cross.  Jesus surrendered and He will help me do the same.