Sometimes I get discouraged. I like to think it happens to everyone at times...at least I'm not alone. I'm at this point that can best be described as "blah." Have you ever been in that spot where you just feel like all your efforts in life, everything you've strived for, everything you've worked hard for, given money to it's all wasted time & efforts? I get that way...where I just don't know why I've been doing what I've been doing if all it amounts to is the point where I'm at...which doesn't seem like much. I heard an encouraging word today that gave me this insight.
In Genesis, Jacob was living with his entire family on his father-in-law's land. He's in his sixties & finally leaves in the night to start his own life with his family & have land to call his own. He settles in a spot & begins to dig a well...because water is essential to life. His daughter Dinah is raped by a guy in a town nearby & to make a long story short two of Jacob's sons go into the town & kill all of the men to avenge their sister. Now after Jacob has dug this well & is finally feeling settled & accomplished he has to pick up everything...all his livestock, belongings, his entire family & move again. He probably felt that the well he had dug was just a load of wasted effort & time.
Nearly two thousand years later a woman was drawing water at that very well, when she had an encounter that changed her life forever...she met Jesus & He showed her a new way to life!
God is never wasteful.
The efforts that Jacob made...the well that he dug was used years later by God for good. Jacob didn't even see the effects of his work in his lifetime.
It's reassuring to know that God won't waste anything that I do for Him. Even when I get discouraged & I feel like my efforts are completely in vain...He has a plan that is deeper than me & it reaches farther than what my mind can comprehend.
1 Corinthians 15:58 - Therefore, my dear brothers & sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
My life is changing...as it always has been. I feel like my time has come to move on...& I'm not sure what that entails completely but I know God is directing me in new directions & closing doors in areas that seem to be His clear guidance to move on. I'm excited to see where He'll take me from here...excited about all the people I'll meet along the way...& excited about the ways He will use me. I know that no matter how discouraged I become...God is never wasteful.