Blood, Sweat and Tears

Have you ever started something, that was a something you were called to do and met resistance?

Perhaps you are doing something now, that hasn’t happened as easily as you would hope, but you are convinced that God is moving in it.

I don’t think there has EVER been a promise of God that hasn’t required blood, sweat and tears.

Pick one of those big rock moments in your life when you felt really passionately about doing something. Something so big and so significant there wasn’t anything in that moment that could sway you.

Your friends loved it.

Your family love it.

It was scary and audacious and you love it.

Even more boldly everyone might have been against it, family and friends warned you, but you were convinced it was the right thing to do.

Early on you met some resistance, but you persevered, knowing this was the very thing you were called to do. Months pass and the path still felt challenging and hard but you still have some energy and passion to forge ahead.

When did you hit a wall?

Conflict has canceled the calling.

I can’t find the moment in scripture when what we are called to do is easy. Where it is simple and effortless. In every instance the path is forged with blood, sweat and tears… actually Jabez had a moment, and he is a byline buried in a book of stories of Blood, Sweat and Tears.

Noah, Abraham, David, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Ezra, Paul all had a calling, and all had it forged in blood, sweat and tears. Jesus’ moment was one consisting of blood, sweat and tears. Confirmation of a calling doesn’t mean it is going to be easy.

That promise might come with a test of faith. That call will come with a challenge for hope. Blood, sweat and tears make the best stories. They challenge and develop our faith and remind us that even in the most difficult season someone is there championing our cause. Don’t let the resistance be the thing that stops you from writing the best stories for your life.

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. – Romans 5:3-5

Article supplied with thanks to Duncan Robinson.

About the Author: Duncan Robinson is a radio host, pastor, husband and father of two.