Our deepening relationship with Jesus is a continuously active, thriving experience. Our physical eyes see the unconscious, and conscious limitations others place between us and the goals and successes the Lord is leading us toward, but they no longer have the same deeply penetrating hurtful results, nor are they the roadblocks we often encountered. What was once hard experiences, major frustrations, and conflicts are now minor irritations, and pesty arrows, which our Abba powerfully deflects that only momentarily sting. They have become moment by moment victories, because we now see them for what they are, Divine opportunities. Divine opportunities that are Divinely opening, allowing us to be instructed and spoken to in a new, endearing way by the Holy Spirit, while our Shepherd smoothly guides us through them, and intently leads us towards reaching those Divine goals and successes our Abba has placed on our path. And what happens each time the goals and successes are obtained? Well, because of what we have been through, we now have an extra measure of confidence, as well as the Divinely intimate guidance required to successfully maintain, and nurture those fruitful successes. Those painful experiences have allowed us to hear the Holy Spirit more clearly, and we intimately know that the only reason why we are there, experiencing His Divine goals and successes, is because our Abba wants us to be! Another richness from the Riches of His Glory: those actively building, Divine confirmations and encouragements only our Abba can give us. But why are we still feeling the hurt of those deflected arrows, or seem to experience the rise of irritations? Because our deepening relationship with Jesus is a continuously active experience, and those things give us the opportunities to recognize that our Lord truly is actively present, and His authority is reigning in our individual lives; our Lord is saying, “I am here, this is happening, and I have it well in hand.”