{"id":149,"date":"2019-03-19T06:00:35","date_gmt":"2019-03-19T06:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shelteredingrace.com\/?p=149"},"modified":"2019-03-19T12:25:04","modified_gmt":"2019-03-19T12:25:04","slug":"battling-through-obstacles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shelteredingrace.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/19\/battling-through-obstacles\/","title":{"rendered":"Battling Through Obstacles"},"content":{"rendered":"
It was mile 11.1. \u00a0Exactly two to go. And quite frankly, I didn\u2019t want to go anymore. \u00a0I had battled through an injury training for this half marathon, and even though my pace was on track for one of my best times, my body started shutting down and I lost track of the \u201cwhy\u2019s\u201d and purpose.<\/div>\n
\n

Sometimes life can be like this. \u00a0We battle through obstacles, sometimes many at the same time, and it is hard to put that next foot in front of the other one.<\/p>\n

But we must\u2026.Persevere. \u00a0Perseverance can be defined as never giving up despite what you may encounter.<\/p>\n

The Bible says in Hebrews 12:1, \u201cTherefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin that so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.\u201d<\/p>\n

We ARE going to encounter tough situations and trials. \u00a0We are promised those in James. Whatever is ahead of us though, we need to persevere on our journey through our faith.<\/p>\n

But how?<\/p>\n

Draw Near to God<\/em><\/strong>:\u00a0\u00a0God is the only one who understands fully what we are going through. \u00a0James 4:8 says, \u201cDraw near to God and He will draw near you.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Think of some of the examples scripture gives us in Job, Joseph, and the disciples. It was their closeness to God that kept them going during these hard times.<\/p>\n

Hold onto the hope with a strong anchor:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/em> \u00a0Hope is trust and expectation. \u00a0\u00a0Hebrews 6:19 tells us\u00a0\u00a0\u201cThis hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast\u2026\u201d\u00a0 We have to have full confidence that He will give us victory through Jesus Christ, that He will never leave us, that He will strengthen us and help us. \u00a0Trust and expect that Him to do ALL these things.<\/p>\n

Surround Yourself with a strong circle of people<\/strong><\/em>:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We need to be around people who inspire us to be more like Jesus. \u00a0\u00a0We can gain strength through the friends who we choose to be around. Thankfully, at mile 11.1, I had a friend that I trained with that didn\u2019t let me lose sight of that goal. \u00a0She held me accountable to my purpose and gave me confidence in finishing the race.<\/p>\n

Our life here on earth will have many hurdles and stumbling blocks. \u00a0We cannot give up though. We must persevere. Remember to draw near to God, hold onto the hope God has given us through his promises with a strong anchor, and surround yourself with encouraging people that point you closer to Him. \u00a0These will help you walk through the dark valleys we will all face.<\/p>\n

Anchored to Him,<\/p>\n

Leigh Ann<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was mile 11.1. \u00a0Exactly two to go. And quite frankly, I didn\u2019t want to go anymore. \u00a0I had battled through an injury training for this half marathon, and even though my pace was on track for one of my best times, my body started shutting down and I lost track of the \u201cwhy\u2019s\u201d and purpose. Sometimes life can be like this. \u00a0We battle through obstacles, sometimes many at the same time, and it is hard to put that next foot in front of the other one. But we must\u2026.Persevere. \u00a0Perseverance can be defined as never giving up despite what you may encounter. The Bible says in Hebrews 12:1, \u201cTherefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin that so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.\u201d We ARE going to encounter tough situations and trials. \u00a0We are promised those in James. Whatever is ahead of us though, we need to persevere on our journey through our faith. But how? Draw Near to God:\u00a0\u00a0God is the only one who understands fully what we are going through. \u00a0James […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[67,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/shelteredingrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/IMG_9825.jpg?fit=750%2C488&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shelteredingrace.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shelteredingrace.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shelteredingrace.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shelteredingrace.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shelteredingrace.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/shelteredingrace.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":150,"href":"https:\/\/shelteredingrace.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions\/150"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shelteredingrace.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shelteredingrace.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shelteredingrace.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shelteredingrace.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}