John & Johnisha's Story

This is a story of God's faithfulness to a family that had a big need and how he worked a miracle for them.

Trusting God to Meet Your Needs

Youtuber Alyssa Danae shares a story from her own life when she was worried about her future and trying to control the situation rather than trusting God. Alyssa finally broke down and realized that she needed to let go of control and trust that God would provide everything she needed, and he did just that.


Sometimes in life when we are working hard to turn our life in a certain direction but we face obstacle after after obstacle it might be a sign that God wants us to go in a different direction. No matter what the situation is God knows our future and we can be sure that he will provide everything we need for each stage in life if we love God and trust him.

Rest

"Our ability to enjoy life and find time for our souls to rest is directly related to our trust in God. We often strive because we think we are necessary to God's plans. However, God does not need us, but chooses to be in relationship with us and use us for His purpose. And He built us finite, limited, and unable to work well without rest.

Create a vision of rest for yourself and your family. Write out a plan for regular patterns of rest and trust." 

Jennie Allen, in her book "Proven"

Jump in The River

Pastor Thomas Hansen from Hillsong Church in Copenhagen preaches a great sermon about trust. Thomas Hansen mentions that we have never been called to fully understand God but we are called to trust him. Our level of trust reveals our faith. However, we all know that it can be hard to trust God sometimes. Our fears can hinder our faith, other times we let our negative self-talk hinder us from trusting God. God calls us qualified, but we start to tell ourselves all the reasons why we aren't good enough.

Thomas Hansen says that we should never let a temporary season in life become permanent. Life becomes really heavy when we let a difficult season in life define us. We will all face different types of painful and difficult seasons in life but we don't have to "set camp" in these places. We walk through the difficult seasons in life, we don't make them our permanent residence. When we "set camp" in a difficult season we start to let our struggles define us. We get hurt by someone and we start viewing ourselves as victims. We get offended by somebody so we let the difficult experience make us bitter. We decide to stay in our difficult season rather than to move on.

I like what Thomas Hansen says: " Your position in life is not as important as your direction." Life is not so much about where you are at right now, it's all about where you are heading in life. Where are you going? We are always moving in a direction. One thing that can hinder us from moving forward in life is labels. Our culture is quick to give us labels; divorced, unemployed, broke etc. Labels define us and restrict us, resist the urge to label yourself. We will all go through difficult seasons in life but we don't need to let these temporary seasons define us, our job is to keep moving forward.

One way we can keep our faith and continue to trust God during a difficult season is by remembering what God has done for us in the past. If God helped you overcome struggle A,B and C in your life you can be sure he will continue to guide you through struggle "D". We can trust our God. The Bible tells us: "So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the LORD your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you. "(Deuteronomy 31:6 NLT)

Sometimes we are at risk of missing out on our breakthrough in life because of a couple of different reasons:
1.) We expect God to bring the breakthrough according to our own personal plan and preference. Sometimes the way forward will look very different than we expected, so we choose to rather stay stuck.

2.) It seems too simple. There are times in life when we can get so focused on our method that we end up trusting our method more than we trust God. We think that if we do things just right we are going to get what we want in life, when in reality a method is just a method. Our God is not restricted to a method. Sometimes we don't want to do what God is asking us to do because it seems too simple.

How to fix trust issues

Most of us tend to have some trust issues, trust issues can easily ruin a relationship since trust is such a vital part of a healthy relationship. Lysa TerKeurst gives us some advice on what we can do to deal with our trust issues. If we don't deal with our trust issues we will end up trying to perform our way to love, trying to earn another person's love. Unconditional love is not something we earn, it is freely given.

Are we there yet?

Who likes waiting for things in life? Probably nobody. I'd much rather have each one of my dreams come true without any waiting seasons in between. The reality of life looks a lot different than that, we often find that we have to spend a lot of time waiting before our dreams come true. So why does God seem to keep us waiting so much in life?

Although nobody likes waiting the waiting seasons in life are often the times when God can grow us the most, while we wait God teaches us to trust and obey him. When we find ourselves in a waiting season there is usually something God wants to change within us before we are ready to enter our own "promise land". God knows that if he would let us enter the promise land before he has changed a few things inside of us we would be in danger of ruining that next assignment in life. God works in every waiting season to prepare us for the next stage in life.

God knows what we need to thrive and be successful in life. Each waiting season usually includes an area where God is waiting for us to obey him. We often know exactly what God wants us to do next to help us grow, but we don't want to do it. I like what Elyse says in the sermon: "But I can promise you that your promise land is on the other side of your obedience."

I can definitely relate to the message in this sermon. Many times I've found myself in a stage in life where I know exactly what God wants me to do next, but I'd rather do anything else than obey His will for my life. Why? Usually because it would require me to step outside of my comfort zone or because I'm afraid. Once I've finally decided to take that step of faith into the unknown it's always been worth it.

Pastor Elyse Murphy gives us a few tips on what to do when we feel like we can't get to our promise land, when we feel stuck walking around in circles in the wilderness. Elyse teaches us what we need to do to get up, get focused and get going toward that dream that seems so far out of reach at the moment.

Embracing Uncertainty

Andrea Lewis talks about how she has learned to embrace the uncertainty of life lately. I think we all struggle with this more or less, maybe more than ever before since we actually can control a lot of things in our lives these days so we get used to being in control and kind of like it. Then something happens that messes up all our plans and we get frustrated, confused or fearful because we think that we have to figure everything out, rather than to "just go with it".

Sometimes it can be really freeing to just let go, accept and embrace the fact that no matter how much we would like to, we can't control life. We might as well enjoy the adventure and trust that things will work out in the end. Although we can't control where life will take us we can be sure that life will continue to teach us new things about ourselves and the world every year if we let it.

Your Promises

When we are worried about the future it's easy to get stuck in fear, and fear can really weigh us down. One of my favorite songs to listen to on days when I'm really worried is "Your Promises" by Elevation Worship. The song reminds me of who's in control and helps me trust God. God is the one who provided everything I needed in the past and He will continue to provide in the future. He might not always give me what I want, but he knows what's best for me. I can trust him. I hold on to his promises when the storms come in life. These are some of His promises:


God's promise when you are depressed:

"The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."
Deuteronomy 31:8



God's promise when you are anxious:

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
Philippians 4:6-7



God's promise when you are confused:

"I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you."
Psalm 32:8



One of my personal favorites:

"For I know the plans I have for you", declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
Jeremiah 29:11