God is our Provider (Matthew 6:26-34, Ezekiel 34:26-31), Protector and Refuge (Psalm 91:1-4, Psalm 46:10-11), Savior (Isaiah 43:10-11, Acts 16:25-26), and Redeemer (Ephesians 1:3-8 (NLT), Romans 3:23-26 (NLT), Psalm 111:9 (NLT)). God wants us to trust Him, have faith in Him. I have seen what trusting God and believing in God can do. My whole life has been changed since I truly laid my life at His feet and decided to trust Him. Circumstances, situations, and feelings can often blind us and deter us from believing the Word of God, God does not lie and God does not change. His Word always has been and always will be true. If He said it, it is so. The devil comes to steal (our joy, peace, happiness, blessings), kill (our hopes, dreams, faith), and destroy (our relationship with God and with each other) BUT JESUS came that we might have abundant life. There is the misconception that trusting God and living a saved life equates to having a perfect, trouble free life and that just is not true. We won't be free from troubles and pain until this world passes away and then you will only experience that life if you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior. We will experience pain, trials, tribulations, anxieties, heartbreak, and disappointments but when you go through these things with Jesus you know that it's only temporary. You know that these things come to build your character and your faith. You know that these things come so that God can show you who He is. If you never go through anything, you can never experience God for yourself. Tribulations are an opportunity to grow closer to God.
I am beyond amazed at who God is. I cannot even fully articulate how I feel about Him. His love is incomprehensible. How He does all that He does is inexplicable. And the thing is, I did not always feel like this. I was saved, but I didn't know God. I knew some things I had heard about Him and a few things that I had read, but I did not have a relationship with Him. I didn't pray a lot, I didn't read a lot, I didn't know how to trust Him. It was a process, but once I started praying to Him and seeing Him answer prayers it began to open my eyes little by little. Sometimes we feel like God might not hear us if He doesn't answer when we want Him to or how we want Him to, but we have to be reminded that HE is God and He does things in His way and in His time. He is the Maker and Creator of all things, so He knows what we need and when we need it. God can and will supply all of our needs, but we must seek Him. Although I started praying and reading, I still was not all the way in with God. I was still doing things that I knew were unpleasing to Him, but those things helped me cope. I still did not know how to let go and let God. When you experience God for yourself, it changes you...HE changes you...IF you allow Him to work in and through you. It doesn't always feel good when He's working, but the end result is beauty. Think about diamonds, think about baked goods, think about pottery. Diamonds don't just start out shiny and beautiful, they form under crushing pressures and intense heat. Cakes don't just appear beautifully decorated, ingredients are beaten together and cooked at high heat to form a more solid shape and then assembled. Beautiful clay pottery starts soft and is kneaded and spun, sometimes falling apart before finally taking it's shape, and then placed under high heat to set. We are no different. We are pressed, beaten, shaken, sometimes crushed...but it's to yield something beautiful. When I finally let go, and trusted God to be God everything for me changed. After many years of being saved yet lost, I finally recognized God's love. I could better understand it and Him. Every need that I have had, God has met it and I recognize God as my provider. Everything that I have is because of Him, it all comes through Him. I shared in a previous post that I am unemployed, I have been since June 30, 2016. I had some money saved that would help me through about 1 month of living, after that, I didn't know what I was going to do if I did not have another source of income. But God. I'm now 7 weeks into unemployment and not a single bill has gone unpaid or been paid late. God continues to provide all that my children and I need. My bills for the next month are already taken care of and there is even money left over. It's only by the grace of God and His provisions. Now, don't get me wrong...I have had moments of anxiety. Wondering how in the world we were going to make it. My biggest fear has been being homeless again. The devil enjoys playing on our fears and I had to remind myself of that. When I have those moments of anxiety and fear, I dismiss them by praying and praising. I remind myself of what God has already done for me. I remind myself of what HIS word says. I am chosen by God and I am loved by God which means He will take care of me. I love God and am called by God, which means that me being terminated from my job will work for my good! Truth be told, getting fired was an answer to my prayers! God does not always carry out things the way we expect and we cannot always understand His methods, but it's not for us to understand everything---His ways and thoughts are higher than ours.
Try God. Trust God. Stand on His promises.
Romans 3: 27-31 NLT
Isaiah 55:9-11
John 10:10
Peace & Blessings!
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