The author of Hebrews writes in chapter 10 verses 19-25:

"Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching." (Heb 10:19-25 )

Holding onto Christ and others believers seems so easy when our lives our easy, but when our lives are not easy, when the path is rough, it becomes more difficult for us to see why we would do so.  What we need is to be assured that regardless of the condition of our path, drawing near to God is still possible.  This passage tells us that we have a "new and living way" opened for us.  Christs death on the cross made it possible for us to do draw near to God because it removed the veil between us and God.  We have the ability to be washed with a pure water, the water of life that Christ gives. (John 4:13-14 )  When we have confidence in this we can draw near to God at all times, regardless of our circumstance, regardless of what is on our path.

If we are pulling away from other believers in the midst of something rocky on our path, then we are missing out on the opportunity to encourage others believers.  How is it possible to encourage others believers when you are going through a rough journey?  The Lord is faithful to that which He promises, and one of His promises is found in Psalm 145:14 "The LORD upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down." (Ps 145:14 )  When we are drawing near to God and He is lifting us up and other believers  see how the Lord is working in our life that is the most powerful way we can encourage them towards love and good deeds.  When we pull away from other believers in the midst of our rough journey we remove an opportunity for them to be encouraged by the Lords work in our life.

If you find yourself pulling away from the Lord because of your circumstance, remember our hope is firm in what Christ did.  A promise firm in the One who is always faithful, who wants you to remain unswirvingly attached to that hope regardless of your circumstance.  He will lift you up, cry out to Him.

When God tells us "no" or "not yet-wait" we have to remember with faith that He intends everything for our good. (Jer 29:11 )  But what about when He asks us to do something we don’t understand, to give up something we don’t want to, or to move in a direction we don’t think we are ready for?  Have you ever told God "NO not that!"?  I would be surprised if you haven’t because I know I certainly have.  When we are walking with the Lord allowing Him to mold us we sometimes discover, even in trial, that there are things that the Lord asks of us that we really don’t want to do.  Much like when a child hears their mother or father say "go clean your room" or "its time to move on", we don’t want to go the direction the Lord is sending us because we are either comfortable where we are, or we are already dealing with enough change in our life to change anything else.

Like the child who doesn’t want to clean their room because they don’t see a problem with it, when we don’t want to change something because we are comfortable with the way it is, we fail to see the wisdom in what we are being asked to do.  If a child’s room is a mess, then they are going to step on something, lose something, or fail to learn how to keep other areas of their life in order.  When the Lord is asking us to change something, we need to recognize that in His wisdom He knows it needs changing. (Job 12:13 )   Also, if something does not fit with the kind of person the Lord intends us to be, He is going to remove it.  It may be that the thing He is trying to remove is something you keep "stepping" on.  Ask yourself if what God is asking you to give up keeps getting in the way of what you ought to be doing, and if it is then that is why He is asking you to give it up.  Like the child stepping on things, removing the obstacle is the wise thing to do.  Saying "no" is only going to prolong your ability to do what you ought to be doing, keeping another area of your life out of order.

If you say it isn’t an issue of comfort, but an issue of being overwhelmed with to much change already, it really is, at its core, still an issue of comfort.  When things in life are in turmoil, when something has rocked our life, we will grab onto what is familiar in an attempt to steady our feet.  We do this so that we can feel like not everything is spinning out of control, not everything has changed, and something is right.  Then we are asked by God to change something and we say "NO I can’t right now!" because we think enough has changed already, it can wait.  Like the parent who says to a child "its time to move on", God is letting you know it is OK to hold onto something different rather then that familiar thing that He is telling us is not like Him.  In trial God is going to mold us, we need to be willing to allow Him to do so.  When He asks us to give up something, it is because it is not like Him, not because He doesn’t want us to have something steady in our lives.  If you feel like you need that steady place to stand so you can’t give up what God is asking you to give up, know you can stand strong in Him. (Ps 61:3 , Pr 18:10 )  Even in trial God is going to ask us to move on, to keeping changing, to continue to be willing to stay on His Anvil in the molding process.

Is there anything in your life that you have said to God "NO not that!" about?  Ask yourself "why?".  Is it because you are comfortable with the way things are?  Is it because you think you need it to steady your life?  Is it becuase you don’t think in trial you can do it and still stand strong?  Is it getting in the way of what you ought to be doing?  Ask the Lord to give you the faith to remember that He knows what He is doing, and the courage and strength to say yes.

Everything changes right?  Isn’t that what everyone says, bands sing about, and books get written about?   There are at least 6 artists who have named a song or album "Everything Changes".   Do a book search on Amazon.com for "Everything Changes" and you get over 10,000 results for books!  I think people generally agree that things change.  It is a constant theme and people talk about it on a constant basis.  When was that last time you got together with a group of people and didn’t hear someone ask "whats new?"  We ask because we know things change.

So why then with God does it surprise us when He wants us to change?  We know that we are changing from our former selfs to our new selfs (Eph 4:22-24 ).  This is a time consuming process, not like changing our clothes or getting a haircut to change our appearance.  He is going to mold us for our entire lives, that is quite a long time.  We know He is going to keep molding us and He gave us a helper to remind us of what He said.  John 14:26 says "But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you." (John 14:26 NIV )   Part of the Holy Spirits very purpose is to abide in us, teach us, and guide us. (John 14:16 , John 14:26 , John 16:13 )

The Holy Spirit was given to us to help us see what in our life needs to change.  The Holy Spirit allows us to distinguish our old self from the new self, that which God wants to mold out of us so that we can be molded into what He wants us to be.  This is not always a very comfortable process.  We don’t always want to be molded.  There are sometimes parts of our lives that we would rather not have change.  We would rather believe not everything changes, and not everything needs to change!  There is only one issue with that thought, if God wants to change it, it needs to be on His Anvil.  I believe that God knows what is best for His creation (Gen 1:27 ).  We sometimes think God can’t change some part of us, yet He is capable of more then we can imagine because He is God, and He has given us the power of the Holy Spirit  (Eph 3:20 ).  At times we think God doesn’t know about that area–yet we fool ourselves (Heb 4:13 ).  We may believe that God is not big enough for some issue in our life.  God is big enough, bigger then we can fathom, for He is infinite (1 Kings 8:27 ).

Is there something in your life that you know is like your old self self and not your new self?  Is there something you know God wants to change but you are not letting Him?  Is it for one of these reasons, or some other reason you have come up with?  Well God is big enough, He does know whats best, and He is capable of changing us into our new selfs just as He promises.  Fool yourself no longer into thinking it doesn’t need to change.  As the Holy Spirit guides us through the process of molding we need to be listening.  I challenge you to drag whatever the Holy Spirit has made you aware needs changing unto Gods Anvil for Him to mold.  In prayer we can go to God and ask Him to change us, and He is faithful to do so.  After all, change is something we are in a constant process of with God, the process of constantly changing to be more like Him (Eph4:23-24 ).

My son just got some silly putty, that moldable putty that you can transfer a picture onto, stretch out to make the picture look different, and then squish it all up again to transfer a new picture on it again.  This kind even glows in the dark!  He is fascinated by it.  Moldable putty that can be changed on the surface, with a different picture at any given moment.  That picture will remain there and can be stretched and changed, but it still remains until it is squished up.  Then underneath it is still the same old silly putty.  Silly putty was designed to be this way, always the same putty no matter how you change its surface appearance.

Unfortunately this sometimes happens with people to.  Same person on the inside no matter how you change the appearance on the outside.  Silly putty can’t change its insides no matter how many pictures you put on its surface.  The reality is people can not truly change just by putting a new picture on the outside either.  There is a danger in not allowing God to change us beyond the surface.  Ephesians 4:22-24 says "You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness." (Eph 4:22-24 NIV )  When we don’t allow God to mold us, we are not going to be able to put on this new self.  It is impossible to do that without Him, since it is He we are being changed to be more like.

When we are in danger of not allowing ourselves to be molded by God, it may be because there is something we don’t want God to mold.  It may be because we think we can handle things just the way they are.  Well look at that silly putty again.  What happens to it after the surface is changed and stretched, but it eventually gets squished?  It is the same old silly putty underneath.  That is the danger in not being molded on the inside.  When we don’t allow God to mold us, and something comes along that squishes us so to speak, we become corrupted again by our old self and our deceitful desires, and we don’t act like our new self.  We all do it.  We all have moments where our old self shines through-like that glow in the dark silly putty.  What we need to do is be sure that when that small part starts to glow we allow God to mold into something new, not just cover it up with something so it doesn’t show for a little whole longer.  Eventually it will show again, and then what.

When we are going through trail one of the unfortunate things that happens is many of those old self moments glow through because we are being squished.  We may react like our old self.  Our emotional reaction may reflect our old self.  We might revert to an old behavior we thought we defeated.  It matters not what that old self part is that is glowing through, it only matters that we don’t just cover it up, and that we allow God once again to mold us, to change us, and to teach us we are no longer that person.  It certainly doesn’t hurt to be reminded that we are a new creation because we are in Christ. (2 Cor 5:17 )

When we have kids one of our goals is to raise good independent children who can take care of themselves and thrive as adults.  We do everything we can to provide them with what they need when they are children, but we also teach them the necessary skills to eventually provide all of that for themselves.  We hope one day they will get a job, move out, and support themselves.  This theory works wonders with children.  This theory does not work so well when applied to our relationship with God.  God does not run on the theory of "I hope to teach my children everything they need to know to make them independent of me someday!".  Unfortunately we like to think sometimes we are independent of God.

There is a huge problem with this theory, and that is this.  Independence doesn’t get us very far with God! God is not waiting for us to say "I know it all now-I can do it without you".  Opposite completely from this He is waiting for us to rely on Him in our entirety, for us to depend on Him completely despite our need, despite what may think we need, He desires for us to depend completely and wholly on Him to provide us what He knows we need.  Matthew 6:8 says in part "your Father knows what you need before you ask him."  That is a powerful statement.  God already knows our need!  So why should we not ask Him to give us what we need when we know He already knows what that something is?  If He knows what it is why would we want to go around searching for something we might not find?  Here is the other part of that, we know if we ask He will give us what we ask for!  In John 14:13-14 Christ tells us that in his very own words.  So if we know God knows what we need, He will give it to us if we ask, then we ought to be asking Him to give it to us!

Even more powerfully then this, our independence fails to recognize the proper place of God in our lives.  When we decide that we are in charge of what is happening, that we are going to walk our own way and tell God see you later, we are forgetting an important key.  Romans 11:36 says "For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen." (Rom 8:36 NIV )  If we look at this we see that from Him, God, all things have come.  He is the source of all things.  All things are possible through Him, He is the means by which things continue.  The glory goes to God for all things.  We can not be independent from that which is our source and sustainer!

The other problem with independence is it fails to properly recognize God as the source and sustainer of our very being.  When we do that it makes it very difficult to go to God for what we actually need as opposed to looking for what we think we need, or trying to solve our problem on our own.  When we are in the midst of trial, we need to stop telling ourselves and God "I can do it on my own" and say "God I know you know what I need, please give that to me."  When we set aside our false sense of independence and recognize God as our source and sustainer the Anvil becomes much easier to lay on.  The path becomes easier to see because we began asking God for what we need rather then seeking something we may not find on our own.  So remember Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight."  and start asking God for what you need, that which He already knows.

In a storm like a tornado or hurricane one of the biggest priorities is to find shelter. It is key to getting through the storm not only unharmed, but possibly even alive. Sometimes in the midst of such a great storm, especially if someone has never been through a tornado or hurricane before a persons instinct might tell them to RUN! Get away as far as you can from what is happening. Especially with a tornado this can be extremely dangerous, as the tornado is unpredictable.

When we face trials in our lives that are unpredictable, and unexpected, we may suddenly not know what to do. We may decide we want to run rather then face what is happening. The problem with that tactic is that the trial is still happening, the reality of the situation is still at hand.  When we run we only have our back to the storm, and we are become weaker by running off alone.  What we need to be doing instead is seeking a shelter where we can live through the storm unharmed. Yes the trial we are living may be harming us in a physical way, but what we want to avoid is having the trial harm us in an emotional and spiritual way that we will not recover from.

There is a shelter we can seek that will accomplish this for us. Unlike a tornado, where a shelter is a physical place, the shelter from the trials we face in life is not a physical location. It is found in our relationship with God. He is our shelter and peace in storm (Ps. 55:8 ). But even more then that, when we seek Him we will find that shelter (Prov. 8:17 ), that place where we can weather the storm . By running from Him in the storm we only miss the very thing we are looking for, a peace in the middle of the storm. We need to be seeking God and looking at what He is doing in the storm. The shelter and peace we need is in God. He promises us peace (Ps. 85:8 ),  and we know God keeps His promises!

We need to resist the urge to run, resist the urge to fight the trial indepently. Peace is available if we seek the shelter that is available in God, and we do so by spending time in His word, and in prayer.  When we go to God in the trial He is capable of giving us a peace that is beyond that which we are going to find by any other means.