The hardest lesson I learned in 2013

On his blog, Jon Acuff recently shared the hardest lesson he learned in 2013. I feel like I learned lots of hard lessons last year, but the greatest one is:

Trusting God and following His plan doesn’t necessarily make things easier. 

I don’t know where I heard it or when I started believing it, but I thought that when you obeyed God you were blessed. However, obedience to God is sort of a given; it’s what we do for the God we love and serve. There is no guarantee anywhere in God’s word that if we obey things will be easy and we will be blessed. In fact, the Bible basically says the opposite. 2 Timothy 3:12 says, “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” So I followed what God wanted me to do last year, made major changes, and it was still all very difficult. The truth is, in that difficulty I learned more about the God I love. I focused on Him more and myself less while learning a lesson that I will always keep with me.

What was your hard lesson in 2013?