John 6:60-66  "Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this said, “This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, “Does this cause you to stumble? 62 What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him. 65 And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.” 66 As a result of this many of 

His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore."

Hard words; a difficult statement, usually that brings to mind someone who hears devastating news, things you definitely want to cover your ears for. Sickness, death, financial stress can run us ragged if we allow it. No doubt there will be endless trials in our lives, some are huge mountains of despair, some are made up of the everyday drudgery that can overtake us IF we don’t fix our eyes on Jesus. Sometimes though it is easier said then done.

 In one of my favorite books, “The Red Sea Rules”, the author says the following:

 “Our whole perspective changes when finding ourselves in a hard place, we realize that the Lord has either placed us there or allowed us to be there, maybe for reasons only known to Him.”

 So, if He has placed me there, surely He has prepared it for me. Instead of grumbling I should be filled with gratitude that He has allowed me to be where He wants me. My hard place might not be your hard place. We might even look at each other hard places and want to trade!

 As I have taught the High School Girls these past few weeks we have been studying Luke 9:23.

"And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. 

And all of a sudden I realized He had me in a real hard place facing a difficult statement. DENY himself. Been there, done that I thought. I kept hearing the words though….”deny….deny…..deny himself”. OK God, you are scaring me. Haven’t I given up enough? No. No? An unmistakable voice asked me if I was really willing to follow Him. Was I ready to deny my selfish interests, ( all of which were justifiable of course--- after all I deserve to feel the way I do; read- bitterness, unkindness, envy, hard heartedness) in order to pursue Him? Then it hit me, the girls in my class hear it every week…..every choice we make brings us either a step closer to or farther from God. He is testing me. The choice is up to me. To move towards Him, to follow Him, means to deny myself. But in reality what I deny are the things He doesn’t want in my life anyway. Every little step of obedience, every time I say no to me and yes to Him I get a little closer, not to a perfect life but to the perfect One.

 I love analogies and this has got me thinking of the classic monkey with his hand stuck in the jar.

“A small jar is placed at the base of a tree with nuts or other items which may attract the monkey’s curiosity. The opening of the jar allows the monkey to place his hand in, but when he tries to withdraw it, he is unable to do so without letting go of the contents of the jar. Believe it or not, some monkeys will stay there with their hand in the jar until the hunter comes back to trap them! They are trapped because they are unwilling to let go of something they are doing which is working against them.” 

In the same way I can let my “hand” fill up with the things of the world-oh they don’t have to even be material things; they can be feelings and emotions that are “deceitfully wicked” . And I don’t want to let go. But God wants me to unclench my fist and let Him place in it just the right things. How I want to always choose, like Mary in Luke 10:42

  “but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, 

which shall not be taken away from her.”