Press In and Press On.....blogpost by Tammy Konneker

It so hard to stay focused in a world today that is so filled with distractions. It becomes harder and harder for a Christ follower to keep focused let alone someone that has not yet come to know the Lord to find strength in a world that seems to have turned upside down. Being a Christ-follower does not make you exempt from struggles....on the contrary it makes you even more susceptible to them as Satan wars once again for your very soul. "In this world, YOU WILL have trouble but have hope for I have overcome the world." I can't imagine Jesus' time here on earth, I can't imagine his days of seemingly defeat...how he would go off from the crowds to pray. The one thing Jesus knew was to Press On he had to Press In.

I wish I could explain why the woman dying of cancer herself would walk out into her living room to find her 28 year old son dead in the recliner. I wish I could tell you why a mother loses a beloved child way too soon. I wish I could tell you why our life of health can be turned upside down by one illness. I don't understand, but I'm not made to understand. I'm created to lean in, to listen close and to pay attention to what God is teaching through these moments. Whether it be compassion, passion, endurance or perseverance.....God has a plan through it all. Our job is to not define God but allow God to define us through our struggles. In the end...my desire is if for people to not remember what took my life but what defined my life. I want to know that by my perseverance that God somehow received glory through my struggles.

My thoughts are of Joseph and how he was appointed by God to be a king yet found himself stripped of his garments and thrown into a well by his brothers to be left for dead. I stand there in the bottom of that well with Joseph and I wander where his thoughts were at that time. I'm sure he was in fact questioning the king part. Wouldn't you? But yet God had already said it would be so, so who was Joseph to question God's ways....by the way God had a plan even at the bottom of Joseph's well. Along came some men and his brothers panicked and decided to sell him to them....not knowing that they were sealing his fate to become king. Joseph turned a very wrong situation into something good. He served as if he was serving the Lord and in his faithfulness God fulfilled his prophecy of Joseph.....but it wasn't until Joseph pressed in to God that the glory of God was revealed to him. Joseph's story and our story all can have similar endings.....the choice is ours....will we press in....or will we surrender our God given position because of seemingly bad circumstances? (read the story for yourself starting in Genesis 37 and I could give you so many more similar stories throughout the bible and throughout the lives of people I have known in my life that rose above their circumstances)

Jeremiah 29:11-14 This well known scripture is quoted over and over again but many times the most important part is left off when its quoted. vs 13 "you will seek me and find me WHEN you seek me with all of your heart. I will be found by you 'declares the Lord and will bring you back from captivity'

Jeremiah 29:11-14 "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart. I will be found by you declares the Lord and will bring you back from captivity.

Though this struggle may seem long...and though we may not understand how this could possibly be a part of God's plan. We must remember that his plans are for good and his will is to prosper us. Press in and Press on.....