Stretching and stirring

Have you ever walked through a season in your life where you have been stretched in areas you thought you were finished being stretched?

I am finding myself in one of those times right now and it is altogether beautiful and entirely terrifying at the same time. God is stretching me in areas of faith and stirring my spirit to seek Him for a fresh experience.

Paul compares the life of the believer to an athlete (1 Cor 9:24-26 and 2 Tim 2:4-6). Just like an athlete experiences the pain of training as muscles are stretched to new boundaries, so the believer encounters similar discomfort as the spiritual muscles are taken beyond the last point they were tested. Without this component, there is no growth.

You can maintain. But you cannot grow.

Growth requires stretching. It demands it.

So stop resisting. Lean into the new challenge in front of you. Engage the contest before you knowing it is the very doorway to your growth.

Henry Blackaby said it is impossible for your faith to grow unless God takes you beyond the point your faith was last tested (paraphrase). We so often pray for God to get us through something when what we ought to pray is God grow me through this.