Many times over God has given me opportunities to learn how to trust Him and I pray what I've learned will be helpful to you। I first wrote this devotion for a dear friend's daughter, but God has laid it on my heart to share it with you too. I pray my discovery will strengthen your faith and give you courage to be steadfast in your trials.
All my life I've been a stubborn, rebellious and hard-headed person who never changed the way I handled things until finally God had to totally break my heart. Even after I became a Christian I clung to my old ways of handing my problems and the problems of those I love. My first reaction when I had a problem, or if someone I loved had a problem was to immediately think, "What can I do to remedy this and how can I go about getting this situation under control?" I never learned to wait upon the Lord and I never fully trusted Him for any situation. Oh, I wanted to trust Him... and when I would hear someone say, "I'm trusting God for this" I would think, "How do you do that?" --- or I would say to myself, "Well, that's commendable but while you're 'TRUSTING' God you had better do something about it." LOL
At any rate, as I said above, God finally allowed me to be put in a place where there was nothing I could do or say to remedy a situation that tore my world apart and changed my life forever। A tragedy stuck our family along with some deep seated misunderstandings and for once in my life I knew I was helpless! I felt all alone and abandoned by God. Sometimes I would wake up in the middle of the night with chest pains so bad I would think, "Is the pain from this tragedy going to give me a heart attack?" My mind reeled with ways to try and take care of the situation until I finally gave up and became honest with myself.
I knew part of the problem was my own fault, part was the sudden tragedy but most of the problem was misconceptions of different situations and all of us not handling things the way God wants us to handle them. I also came to understand that in spite of how horrible things seem God does work it all out for our own good.
I discovered though the painful trial I talked about above and though many other trials and heartaches that often when we're in the middle of a spiritual battle we can't see how it will ever end, or even how it can be used for our good. But God has promised to never leave us nor forsake us and that He works all things around for our good (Rom. 8:28), our job is to trust Him in the middle of our storms of life in spite of our feelings. I must SAY I trust Him even when I don't have the faith to do so... I must SAY I trust Him even when I feel I'm drowning in a sea of confusion and heartbreak.
It's easy for me to say I love God and trust Him for everything when my life is going good, amen? However, like you, I know it's when I'm down in the trenches of life's battles that I discover how little faith I have... by the same token, it's also a time when I grow in my knowledge of how much I need His grace, strength and courage to survive, Amen?
It's easy to simply say you should trust God in spite of what's happening in your life, but it's TRUE and it's one of the hardest spiritual battles anyone can ever fight and win. I've learned to simply to tell God (out loud) that in spite of my feelings of fear, pain and disappointments I believe He is in control and will work it all out for my good. By saying this out loud I'm being a witness for God, a witness to my own soul, a witness to the angels around me and to Satan who is being allowed to hurt me (God's own purpose for our life).
Am I saying God is the cause of all my troubles? No! Satan and my own bad choices in life are the ultimate cause of my heartaches and trials... However, nothing can come to a child of God without His permission. Remember the story of Job? Our life's battles are not much different in that Satan has to have God's permission to attack us. Sometimes when I'm in the middle of a spiritual battle (when situations seem really bad) I've found that reading the book of Job again gives God an opportunity to reveal more of how He's working in my life.
I've also discovered that God is wanting to use me as His witness to others that He does indeed work everything around for my good. My job is to trust Him for the outcome of my trials. Trusting Him in spite of my feelings is the hard part. I keep saying to myself. "Dot, do you love your Father in heaven enough to keep your mind steady on Him and Him alone when all around you things seem to be falling apart?
Therefore, my humble advice for when you're going through heartache and trials is to continue to stay on your knees, speak in faith, tell yourself and all witnesses (those we see and those in the spiritual realm) that you are going to be steadfast in your faith to rely on your Father in heaven to work all your problems out for your good and the good of all those you love. He is God, He is able, and He will always deliver you!
I discovered though the painful trial I talked about above and though many other trials and heartaches that often when we're in the middle of a spiritual battle we can't see how it will ever end, or even how it can be used for our good. But God has promised to never leave us nor forsake us and that He works all things around for our good (Rom. 8:28), our job is to trust Him in the middle of our storms of life in spite of our feelings. I must SAY I trust Him even when I don't have the faith to do so... I must SAY I trust Him even when I feel I'm drowning in a sea of confusion and heartbreak.
It's easy for me to say I love God and trust Him for everything when my life is going good, amen? However, like you, I know it's when I'm down in the trenches of life's battles that I discover how little faith I have... by the same token, it's also a time when I grow in my knowledge of how much I need His grace, strength and courage to survive, Amen?
It's easy to simply say you should trust God in spite of what's happening in your life, but it's TRUE and it's one of the hardest spiritual battles anyone can ever fight and win. I've learned to simply to tell God (out loud) that in spite of my feelings of fear, pain and disappointments I believe He is in control and will work it all out for my good. By saying this out loud I'm being a witness for God, a witness to my own soul, a witness to the angels around me and to Satan who is being allowed to hurt me (God's own purpose for our life).
Am I saying God is the cause of all my troubles? No! Satan and my own bad choices in life are the ultimate cause of my heartaches and trials... However, nothing can come to a child of God without His permission. Remember the story of Job? Our life's battles are not much different in that Satan has to have God's permission to attack us. Sometimes when I'm in the middle of a spiritual battle (when situations seem really bad) I've found that reading the book of Job again gives God an opportunity to reveal more of how He's working in my life.
I've also discovered that God is wanting to use me as His witness to others that He does indeed work everything around for my good. My job is to trust Him for the outcome of my trials. Trusting Him in spite of my feelings is the hard part. I keep saying to myself. "Dot, do you love your Father in heaven enough to keep your mind steady on Him and Him alone when all around you things seem to be falling apart?
Therefore, my humble advice for when you're going through heartache and trials is to continue to stay on your knees, speak in faith, tell yourself and all witnesses (those we see and those in the spiritual realm) that you are going to be steadfast in your faith to rely on your Father in heaven to work all your problems out for your good and the good of all those you love. He is God, He is able, and He will always deliver you!
With good courage say: "The Lord is my Helper; I will not fear"--for life or death, for sorrow or joy!
The soul that to Jesus has fled for repose,
He cannot, He will not, desert to its foes.
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to take,
He'll never, no never, no never forsake!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "The Lord bless thee, and, keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace " ~ Numbers 6:24-26. In His tender care always, Dot Acknowledgements * A lot of my studies are done using my Life Application Study Bible (KJV) by Tyndale House Publishers and I heavily rely on the explanatory notes for each verse I use because I can not explain them better।
* I often rely on my New American Standard Bible by Thomas Nelson Publishers for double checking the meaning of the verses I used in the King James Version। Not that I think the NAS Bible is better than the KJV Bible, but it gives me more insight into some of the KJV Bible verses.
* Most of my studies are done using the E-Sword program from this site: http://www.e-sword.net/ I downloaded all their commentaries and bought others. The maps and teachers aids are so valuable that I can now do a study in half the time I took before. All the quotes from commentaries by great Theologians came from the E-Sword program.
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"The Lord bless thee, and, keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace " ~ Numbers 6:24-26.
In His tender care always,
Dot
Acknowledgements
* A lot of my studies are done using my Life Application Study Bible (KJV) by Tyndale House Publishers and I heavily rely on the explanatory notes for each verse I use because I can not explain them better।
* I often rely on my New American Standard Bible by Thomas Nelson Publishers for double checking the meaning of the verses I used in the King James Version। Not that I think the NAS Bible is better than the KJV Bible, but it gives me more insight into some of the KJV Bible verses.
* Most of my studies are done using the E-Sword program from this site: http://www.e-sword.net/ I downloaded all their commentaries and bought others. The maps and teachers aids are so valuable that I can now do a study in half the time I took before. All the quotes from commentaries by great Theologians came from the E-Sword program.
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