Devotional: Hard Doesn't Mean Wrong

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Galatians 6:9

MESSAGE

Have you ever caught yourself thinking - this is so hard, surely something must be wrong?

Wrong with me. Wrong with my situation. Wrong with the path I'm on.

That is a subtle lie that creeps in when life doesn't look the way you would have chosen - when the days are harder and heavier than other people's seem to be, when the same battles come round again and again, when you're giving everything and it still feels like a struggle.

Can I share something I've said many times over the years?

Just because it's hard doesn't mean that it's wrong.

Read that again.

Hard is not a verdict.

Hard is not evidence that you've failed, or missed God's plan, or taken a wrong turn somewhere.

Some of the most right things in the world are hard - loving faithfully, caring consistently, showing up again today when yesterday emptied the tank.

Notice what today's verse assumes: doing good makes you weary.

Weariness isn't a sign you're off course - it can be the very proof that you're doing good.

The wrongness we feel is often just the weight of it, not the wrongness of it.

And you were never meant to carry that weight in your own strength.

Jesus offers His - strength for today, mercy that is new every morning, a promised harvest at the proper time.

Not always the harvest we imagined - but His, and good.

So keep going.

Hard? Yes.

Wrong? No.

POINT TO PONDER

Where have you been reading "hard" as "wrong"? What would change if you saw that same struggle as good work, faithfully done?

PRAYER

"Dear Heavenly Father, Thank You that You see how hard it can be, and that You never call it wrong. Forgive me for the times I've doubted my path just because of its weight. Strengthen me with the strength of Jesus today - enough for this day, this hour, this moment. Help me not to give up, and to trust You for the harvest at the proper time. In Jesus' name, Amen!"