In the midst of confusion, doubt and pain...

I want to share an incredible resource with you.

"What do you say to Christians who:

study the Bible and pray regularly but still fight bouts of sadness they can't explain?

feel distant or resentful toward God when things go wrong?

feel guilty because even though they have " the answer" in Christ, that answer doesn't seem to work for them?

These empty valleys of the Christian life can become dark nights of the soul where we wonder if God can still see us. Many times, however, God breaks open the depths of these valleys into wide open spaces in which we can discover that knowing Christ amounts to much more than attending church, having friends from church, reading a devotional book and listening to Christian music. These moments of truth reveal parts of ourselves no one has ever seen. We show them to Christ, fearing He may not be pleased, but instead He takes our hand and walks with us through a time of examining ourselves in light of God's grace and mercy."

This is an excerpt from the book Healing Hurts that Sabotage the Soul, by Curt Grayson and Jan Johnson.  You can download it for free on Jan's website, janjohnson.org.

I have experienced all of the above and those feelings may creep back in from time to time.  Being a believer in Christ does not make it all better...we still struggle...sometimes it's seems even harder because parts of us begin to wake up that once were numb and asleep...and if someone tells you otherwise they are lying.  

There are many, myself included that have faith, but if we are honest with ourselves there are more times than we like to admit where we wonder why we struggle with so much junk and why life is not looking like we expected. 

We may wonder at times if this faith thing is even real. We wrestle with God on many occasions and in doing so our faith is often strengthened, but there are also times we get stuck and have a hard time moving forward. Just because our faith is not working in the moment or the way we expect does not mean it is not real. Sometimes our sight gets blurred.  

Jan has published many insightful books and her website has tons of resources, many free. 

I also wanted to share this from Healing Hurts: 

"A special note to anyone who has quit attending church: we were both on the verge of joining those ranks when we began this process. We were burned out Christians, tired church leaders who believed the church was no longer helping us get our spiritual needs met. We had misunderstood God and were worn out from trying to understand Him. We pray that if you feel this way, you will allow God to re-ignite your faith in Him and help you find safe places to heal your hurts."