Assignments You Didn’t Ask For

It’s a phone call to inform you of sudden news.

It’s the inability to find the heartbeat.

It’s another month with a negative pregnancy test.

It’s the discovery (again) of your spouse’s porn habit.

It’s the strained relationships within your family.

I’ve been talking about our recent decision to put our house up for sale and take a stab at living in Scottsdale. These are the fun assignments in life that provoke our nerves in an exciting way. The gift of formulating a vision for what’s next for your family is just that – a gift.

But what about the hard assignments you didn’t put on your vision board?

Cancer, job loss, divorce, health decline, church implosion, strangling inflation…there’s hard everywhere.

Adversity In The Garden

For believers, everywhere we are is “the garden of eden” – because thanks to Jesus, we have the ability to walk with God in the cool of the day again. We can talk to our Father all day long.

But let’s face it – the “garden” (this world) is still functioning in its curse. It’s not the garden it used to be – perfect and glorious.

Creation itself groans for the King of Kings to return. Birds and animals do not feel safe around humans – a friendly squirrel eating out of the palm of a human hand is miraculous in a broken world.

Though we walk with God, and talk with God, there are things that happen to us we never asked for.

“Did He assign this to us?”, we wonder.

As a certified cognitive behavior practitioner – I will prescribe you with a very important trick to cultivating more peace on purpose; Turn your question into a statement, and you’ll see what you really believe.

“God assigned this to us.” is under the hood of our thoughts.

Doubt has a way of showing itself through the questions we ask ourselves. (as if God isn’t listening)

Our Father in heaven is not heaping hardship upon us in the form of punishment. He sent His Son and His Holy Spirit to be with us here in the cool of the day…

It’s the garden (this world) that is still broken.

Hard With A Promise

I was catching up with a friend in my DM’s last week and she voice messaged about her latest trial.

“You know, I am walking through a really difficult relationship strain right now, but I am doing ok because I know this is hard with a promise.”

And there it is.

Hard…with a promise.

Until the earth is made new – some assignments are going to feel extremely hard, sometimes unfair, and ones we didn’t ask for.

But there is a promise.

He is with us as we go through it. Before Jesus came for His mission to the cross – we had to work very hard just to have a priest be able to talk to God for us. God wasn’t able to dwell with us – He is too holy.

Now that we are seen in the righteousness of Christ – and we are back to the days of talking to God in the garden. ESPECIALLY DURING ASSIGNMENTS THAT ARE PAINFUL.

Not only that, but there is also a day coming where we will no longer dwell in a broken world. The kingdom is advancing right now, and we are a part of this growth.

There will be good, there will be hard.

I didn’t ask for PCOS and infertility.

I didn’t ask for eczema.

I didn’t ask for my marriage to blow up.

I didn’t ask to lose a baby.

Get Your Hopes Up

Hopelessness is anxious expectation things will never work out in your favor – so why bother even trying.

Getting your hopes up feels risky – but scriptures declare that deferring hope makes us SICK.

I always know when I am feeling utterly hopeless – I skip working out, eating well, and taking care of myself. “What’s the point – nothing works out anyway”.

That’s when it’s time to get curious about where it’s coming from. Otherwise all my decisions come from a place of destruction.

Right where the enemy wants us.

Some of us think it is the enemy handing out these hard assignments – because he is always lying, killing, stealing, and destroying/distorting the truth.

But lean in and listen well… he is fully taking advantage of your mind while you live in a broken garden. Why else do you think he wants you to think you can set up utopia dreams? He’s a liar and until Jesus comes back – utopia AKA heaven – is ahead.

For now – the plan is the expansion of the kingdom – more and more people walking with God and testifying His goodness, which is THE GREAT ASSIGNMENT.

The sub assignments are all in line with this great co-mission. Good and hard.

The enemy would really like to bring you to a place where you agree with him about God so you stop testifying altogether. That God is not good, he is holding out on you, and delivering you all these hard things to teach you a lesson. “He’s not going allow you success. See? He is blessing everyone BUT you.”, is the serpent’s favorite thing to whisper.

It’s the same old agreement from the fall of man in Genesis. Don’t fall for it.

Remember, that terrible serpent is recruiting people to his team because he knows his fate. He takes great pleasure when we agree with him and start skipping talks with the Lord in the cool of the day, question your trusting in Him , and failing to remind ourselves that every hard assignment is attached to promise.

Learn the language of praise. Read the psalms aloud. Get to know the goodness of God. This is how we deepen our alliance in the Kingdom of Heaven.

You know Jeremiah 29:11?

Jesus was going to restore prosperity to us though himself – and Jeremiah prophetically declared it. But today we get to TASTE it.

If the Father really wanted to hand out punishment to His people – He would have withheld His son – sealing His decision to never walk with mankind in the garden again.

But He didn’t.

I don’t know what you’re asking to be delivered from – your hard assignment that you didn’t ask for – but for the believer, every hard assignment is not without a promise.

You’re not alone in this moment and it will not remain this way forever.

100 years from now – we will all be free from the bondage of this broken world.

Until then, we rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.

You didn’t ask for this assignment.

The hard work is found in your daily realignment.

Meet with Him today, He’s available.