7. You win some and you lose some.
Don’t feel discouraged if you fall behind in a big thing or a little thing, because God turns the world’s ideas of “winners” upside down. He doesn’t see things like we do.
Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.
-Luke 13:30
6. Somewhere along the line Christians are going to receive crap for just being a Christian.
It says so in the Bible. Sometimes this looks like a family member making a snide comment about your beliefs, or something it looks like prison. Jesus said that when we suffer for him, we also get to share in his glory. We don’t suffer in vain.
Now if we are children, then we are heirs–heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
-Romans 8:17
5. When you’re going through rough stuff, you come out stronger on the other side.
In the end God uses it to make you better. To make you hopeful. He never looks at you and says, “Well, that’s unfortunate. Sucks to be them.” He says, “S/he doesn’t know it yet, but I will turn this situation around and make them a better person in the end.”
We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.
-Romans 5:3-4 NLT
4. You can’t mess up so badly that God doesn’t want you.
It’s impossible. In the end he created everyone, and he wants us all, no matter how much we mess up. The entire Old Testament is full of stories about God wanting his people to come back to him when they went astray.
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
-Romans 5:6-8
3. If you’re facing a huge challenge, don’t fret. With God on your side, you can accomplish some pretty crazy stuff.
David killed a huge man with a stone in a slingshot, Esther was an orphaned turned queen, and Noah built a huge wooden boat with no power tools. Isn’t that crazy, when you think about it?
2. If your heart is breaking for the poor, remember Jesus has got their back.
You don’t understand why it has to be like this, and you just want to take all the babies home and give all the poor mamas money and send all the kids to school… but Jesus is getting something better ready for them.
And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.
-Luke 6:20-21
1. If people disapprove of who you are, don’t listen.
You’re not too loud or too crazy or too slow or too nice or too boring or too wild or too anything. There is no condemnation from Jesus, and let’s face it- does anyone else’s opinion REALLY matter?
Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died–more than that, who was raised to life–is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
-Romans 8:34