Drink the Living Water Daily to Deal With Struggles, Trauma

(Note - I opened with a prayer request for a child who was being bullied, he has gotten help and thigns are a good deal better now, a year later as I write this, pray he and his family come to know Jesus if they don't.)

We’ve seen how Jesus is personal. He can’t stop everything bad without cartoon physics happening. He does give us grace and strength to get through like nothing on earth can. He wants to free us from our burdens; most importantly the burden of sin.

How do we share that when we gather or at least talk with others, like at Thanksgiving?

You don’t have to say “It’s all great.” Jesus is our rock for a reason – this world is really hard to live in. He’s our shelter, shield, defender, etc.. My faith that things would be okay no matter what with my broken leg helped Sander get saved, sure. But others might be reached in different ways. They all need us to be genuine, though. And, that means admitting we struggle when we do. God can use others to help us, after all.

Some people think we’re perfect – or that we think we are. They think we have it made. That couldn’t be further from the truth. When we say Jesus is our rock, we say that because we need Him as a foundation. It’s having something solid to build on, something certain to turn to, that won’t be moving all the time.

This doesn’t mean we won’t struggle. Remember John 4? Jesus told the woman at the well He’d give her living water. We still have to drink of that water daily. We do it through His Word the Bible, prayer, keeping our thoughts on Him - He keeps those in perfect peace whose minds are stayed on Him because they trust Him.(Isa. 26:3) Still, there are times we struggle. It’s like when Peter walked on water toward Jesus. The moment he took his eyes off Jesus, He began to sink. So, it’s okay to admit if we have problems. What we need to do is to keep going to that living water, so Jesus can keep us going.

That said, we shouldn’t let our circumstances take our eyes off of God. It was easy to see how Peter did; he walked on water in a raging storm. But he didn’t use that as an excuse. He didn’t spend time complaining about the storm. He called out “Lord save me” right away since he knew that’s the only one who can help him.

Traumas can even lead to PTSD, driving us nuts as they overwhelm our thoughts. If you feel nobody suffers like you, remember many believers in other countries and times have. God can help you just like them. And, we can trust God to give us wisdom to handle every situation, so we can respond in a Christlike way, not react in the flesh.

Or, you may be bugged by how no one in school or your family follows Jesus, or few do. We can always find a Bible figure to look up to and say, “If he/she can, I can.” Like Daniel: He was kidnapped and taken to Babylon, and did so well God lumps him with Noah and Job in Ezekiel. Along with being an example of Jesus and sharing His love, remember it’s okay to be different from the world. We should be different so others see who Jesus is. If we talk and act mean like the world, it doesn’t draw people to Jesus..