{"id":365,"date":"2012-03-01T08:13:01","date_gmt":"2012-03-01T15:13:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/2012\/03\/01\/on-a-lifelong-journey\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T13:02:41","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T20:02:41","slug":"on-a-lifelong-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/2012\/03\/01\/on-a-lifelong-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"On a lifelong journey"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hello, friends.<\/p>\n<p>This past couple weeks has been full of ups and downs. God has blessed us with some great victories, but there have also been many struggles. I&#8217;ve been hit with the reality that I have a long ways to go before achieving the &#8220;maturity in Christ&#8221; that Paul talks about in Col.1:28. Hearing hard words where your &#8220;growth edges&#8221; are pointed out to you is never easy, and as I swallow hard and try to hear the truth and receive the criticism graciously, maintaining a teachable spirit, it is easy to begin to doubt yourself. In those times, the wise wife of a seminary professor of mine said, <em>&#8220;Eric, don&#8217;t doubt in the darkness what God has told you in the light.&#8221;<\/em> Confessing our weaknesses, humbling ourselves before colleagues, admitting we messed up and not making excuses &#8211; wow, these are so unpopular, but it seems as I read through the Scriptures that they are essential attitudes of anyone wanting to grow in Christ. As it says in Psalm 46, sometimes it may feel like the <em>&#8220;mountains are falling into the heart of the sea,&#8221;<\/em> as our world is turned topsy turvey, but what I am finding healthiest is to return to those things I know to be true:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Christ is my all in all &#8211; He loves me, accepts me, and my chief goal in life is to love Him with all my heart, soul, mind and strength.<\/li>\n<li>My family must come before any ministry or other relationships. There are many others who can do what I do, and probably better than I do it. But I am the only husband for my wife, the only dad for my kids.<\/li>\n<li>Take one growth step at a time, keeping my eyes on the prize and maintaining perspective through it all. I will not change overnight, but <em>&#8220;by the grace of God, I am what I am.&#8221;<\/em> (1 Cor.15:10)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These and a few other pertinent lessons are what I&#8217;ve been dwelling on recently, and I thank God for doing his work in me. As he says in Ps.139: <em>&#8220;Search me o God and know my heart. Try me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there be any hurtful way in me. And lead me in the everlasting way.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Thank God that He is faithful, and will never give up on us. We are all on a lifelong journey, and may we continue moving forward, little by little, till we hear the Master say, <em>&#8220;Well done, good and faithful servant.&#8221;<\/em> Pressing on by God&#8217;s grace, from the Potter&#8217;s wheel. Eric<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hello, friends. This past couple weeks has been full of ups and downs. God has blessed us with some great victories, but there have also been many struggles. I&#8217;ve been hit with the reality that I have a long ways to go before achieving the &#8220;maturity in Christ&#8221; that Paul talks about in Col.1:28. Hearing &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/2012\/03\/01\/on-a-lifelong-journey\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">On a lifelong journey<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotional-thoughts","category-family-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4214,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365\/revisions\/4214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}