***Listen To Audio Version: Worth it, Not Easy Audio 569
Today’s Devotional Scripture: 25 I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.
- Psalm 37:25 KJV
7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: - 1 Peter 1:7 KJV
The Message For Today (June 12, 2026):
***Listen To Audio Version: Worth it, Not Easy Audio 569
There is a grave misconception in life. When a person is dealing with hard times, they’re dealing with confusion, they’re dealing with hurt, pain, or trauma, it is perceived that they are living out the result of their sins or someone else’s sins. Their mistakes or someone else’s mistakes. So if their life is hard, then they must not be walking with God.
If their life is difficult, then has God really been in it? Likewise, if God blesses it, if he is with you, then it should be easy. The problem with that misconception is that it causes many to stop in the middle of the journey. It causes some to turn back because it’s too hard, it’s too much, it’s beyond human capacity.
So is God really in this?
When is God going to do it?
When is God going to turn things around?
We see in scripture how wrong that misconception is. And we see what happens when someone operates in a way to attempt to make the journey easier, versus accepting the weight of what God is giving them to walk out in their lives. We see the father of our faith, Abram, and Sarai, before they became Abraham and Sarah.
The Lord promised them that they would bear a child in Sarah’s old age and Abraham’s old age. And instead of waiting, seeing how hard things have been, seeing how many years she had to wait, Sarah opted to enroll her servant, her handmaiden Hagar, into having the child. Into laying with Abraham, and deciding that Abram would produce a child, and that that would just be Sarah’s child. And it was wrong. And in the midst of it, Sarah turned on her.
And when Sarah turned on her, her maid servant decided to run. This happened in Genesis 16. And in Genesis 16, when her maidservant decided to run, the Lord saw her out in the wilderness and encouraged her to go back in the midst of it, to go back to Sarai, to remain because her child would be blessed.
Ishmael was the fruit of Sarai’s lack of faith and Abraham’s lack of faith in God, because it took two, well, in this case, three, to make Ishmael. But that did not change God’s mind. Even after Genesis 16, when the Lord called Isaac to be placed, as a burnt offering, on Mount Moriah, there was something that Abraham was told of the Lord that is important to catch.
When Abraham goes into Moriah, finds the mountain, takes Isaac up the mountain with him, and begins to strap him down and lay him on the altar as a burnt offering and raise the weapon that would slay his child, in Genesis 22 the Lord spoke from heaven. And Genesis 22:10, it states:
10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.
11 And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.
12 And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. - Genesis 22:10-12
At this point in scripture, in Genesis 22, we know that Ishmael has already been born, that Ishmael is also the seed of Abraham. But here the Lord from heaven said: “thine son, thine only son”. The Lord from heaven only recognized the promise, only recognized Isaac.
So even though there was fruit born from lack of faith, fruit born from the heaviness and eventual succumbing to not waiting, the Lord only recognized Isaac, because Isaac is what God promised. Whenever we don’t walk it out, whenever we don’t have the ability to endure longsuffering, long awaited times, long delays, and what seems like impossible situations, there’s always going to be fruit of our lack of faith.
Praise God for grace, to where we have the opportunity to turn around, to repent, and be reconciled back to the purpose and the plan that God has for us. It is here that, despite having Ishmael, the Lord delivered the promise in Genesis 22 to Abraham. He began to utter the promise as was originally given 25 years before it was released, right there on the top of Mount Moriah.
On the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.
(Genesis 22:14 KJV)
God is faithful, and He’s more than able. But endurance is a part of our race. The ability to wait, the ability to press, the ability to believe when you haven’t received any indication that God is with you, and that His promises are still yes and Amen. Even if it’s been a decade, two decades, or 25 years, God is still more than able. Regardless of how many years you’ve waited, God is still there with you.
Even though the journey is hard, it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. They can doubt all day. They can believe that you are just not walking with God. And we can honestly misjudge others in the same way. But God has the final say over each of our lives. It is a personal relationship that we are walking with God, and God is still able.
Even if people stop believing around us, we can go forth in the things of God, believing on His word. Even in the most impossible situations, even in the most improbable circumstances, God is still God. And as it says in the scriptures, Is there anything too hard for the Lord? (Genesis 18:14 KJV) There is nothing too hard for God.
And no, waiting on God isn’t wrong. It’s hard, it’s not easy, but it is always worth it to wait, to trust, to press into His presence, to believe on His word, to hold fast to the confession of your faith. It is always worth it to walk in the kind of faith that shakes others but establishes miracles, signs, and wonders in your life.
This is a measure of your faith.
And there will be seasons when you will need to rely on the faith of others. But ultimately, walking with God is a personal relationship. It’s a personal journey. It is one that is strengthened with your yes over and over again: to accepting the hard things, to accepting the hard journeys, to knowing that it won’t always look clean because creation is messy, but it’ll always be worth it when you’re walking with God.
Closing Devotional Prayer
My prayer for you:
Father, in the name of Jesus: thank you. Thank you for the mighty woman of God. Thank you for the grace and the glory. Thank you for the Alpha and Omega God. You are the beginning and the end.
And you know what this mighty woman of God is enduring. You know what her family is walking through. You know how good it’s been. You know how hard it’s been. You know the fullness of what she’s dealing with. You are her great God. You are her Father.
You’re a friend who sits closer than a brother. O God, I thank you, God, for you are mighty to save. You are lifting up the mighty woman of God. Whatever, whatever may be missing, whatever may be under duress in her life, I thank you, O God, that you are her strong tower and that she will see the finish.
She will see it end. She will see the other side of it, in the name of Jesus. And we do this with you, O God. We do this walking with you, day after day. We do this, O God, knowing that you are the one that’s expanding our territory, enlarging our tents.
You are the one that’s blessing our family, our husbands, our friends. You are the one, O God. And so we pray in the name of Jesus. We come before your throne of grace and mercy, believing and thanking you for the walk. Because even though it’s not easy, it’s worth it. I thank you, Lord, and I pray in Jesus’ mighty name. Amen.
Good Morning.
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