Are we willing to be challenged?

This a thought that came to me one morning.
Are we willing to be challenged?

If we are happy and content, then facing a challenge might be the last thing we want.

But what if the challenge is from God, our Father in heaven, the Lord God Almighty?

Are we willing to be challenged by Him?
And how often or how many times are we willing to be challenged by Him?

As I came down thinking this, I checked my emails and, in one was two scriptures.

Philippians 3:13-14

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.

2 Timothy 4:7-8

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day – and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

It a appears to me that Paul was willing to face a challenge or two. 🙂

I think that I am someone who is open to being challenged, even if I don’t like it. On the outside I probably look very hostile to any kind of challenges. But on the inside I do try to consider what is being said to me.
I do believe that there is a small part of me that actively wants to be challenged, to be made better. I’d like to think that it is a part of me that is echoing what Paul wrote in the scriptures above. (I do hope that it isn’t just me wanting everything to be just so. 🙂 )

I do also believe that Father wants us to know His rest.
He does, after all, say to us, in Matthew 11:28-30

²⁸ “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

But, even in this scripture about rest, Father is also telling us to take His yoke upon us. A yoke speaks of work, or a challenge that Father is placing before us.

So are we willing to be challenged?
More importantly, are we willing to be challenged by Father?
Will we run from His challenges or will we embrace them, knowing that He has a good work to do in or through us?

Father,
Help me to always hear Your words to me.
Help me to hear Your words that much more clearly that I might be trying to ignore.
Help me to be always willing to follow Your way.
Amen.