A "through" kinda faith......

I have been thinking for some time about testimonies. You know the kind.....sitting in church and either there is an evening set apart for singing and testimonies or just a song sung on a random night with a couple testimonies thrown in here and there. I am in no way making fun of testimony time. I think its good to proclaim the things that God does in our life. What has me thinking lately is that most testimonies only tell the good things. The times God has "come through" The times the healing has come, the marriage has been saved,  the time the bill has been paid.....you know....those things that PROVE that God is good to his people. My question is......what about the times when the money doesn't come in to pay the bill? what about the times when you get a call from the doctor and they say the cancer is back? what about the times your children have no desire to follow Christ? When the marriage looks like there is no hope to it. When the one thing that you want more then anything never comes to fruition? When your wife is laying sick and all you want to do it heal her, help her, comfort her.

What then? Where is that testimony? Is God not good even then? Why do we only share the good things?

I have said so many times in the past year or two how GOOD God is. I noticed that it has usually been in "good" times. We are in a season where it isn't so good. Does that mean that God isn't here?

So here is my testimony.

We are in a hard place. A hard season. A season of not knowing, of insecurity, of waiting, and yes, even of fear. I lay awake at night and have conversations with God. While I'm talking with God, Satan is in my ear, telling me lie after lie. And man is he good. He knows just what to say to have me doubting. Doubting the goodness of God, doubting the believability of God,  which when I doubt that, I begin to doubt everything about Him. That God isn't here, that God doesn't see, that God doesn't care, that if God cared, he wouldn't allow.

I wake up feeling defeated and weak, knowing that I can not handle one more day.

What I need is a "through" kinda faith. What I want is a "through" kinda faith.

Hebrews 11:33 - 34 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice,  and gained what was promised; who shut the mouth of lions, quenched the fury of the flames and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed back foreign armies.

I want the kind of faith that I need to get me through something, not around it. It takes more faith to be delivered through something then from it. The "through" is hard. The "through" is painful. The "through"is when you want to quit bc you feel like you can't take another thing.

God desires to turn a weakness into a strength. The muscle that is strengthening in this weakness is what God is after. He's not out to change our circumstances, He's out to change me. He wants to turn weaklings into warriors and that only happens in the "through."

1 Peter 5:8 Be alert, be soberminded. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

My desire is to shut the mouth of the lion. When he is sitting in my ear and telling me all kinds of lies, I need to know that he is already defeated. Yes, Satan knows that God is believable. That is why he does everything in his power to discourage us. To make us doubt.

Yes, I am in a hard season. A season of uncertainty. But I am so thankful that the God that I serve is believable. I do serve a GOOD God. Even in the hardness of life, in the not fun times, in the scary places, I want the "through" faith. The faith to know that I will get to the other side a stronger person, a person who's muscles may have been stretched but they are stronger in the stretching.

You see, I think my job is to remain. To remain attached to the one true vine. Attached to the words he has for me today. To not get myself all tied up into knots and in a dither about the... What could happen and the what if's. I just need to be still and remain.

Nothing caught God by surprise, nothing caught him off guard. If he has brought me to this.... Then he will bring me through it. There is good that will come from it.

May God give me the strength to remain faithful to him. To not let the fear consume me and make me pull back. Right now it would be a whole lot easier to pull back and say it isn't worth it. We were better off when we didn't do this or when we weren't in this season. But I want to be found faithful in the through. In the testing.

Hebrews 11:1 ~ Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

I do not see an answer.

I do not see, I do not see, I do not see.

Hebrews 11 :27b ~ he persevered because he saw him who was invisible.

But I DO see a God who loves me. A God who has my best interest on his heart.

What is your testimony? Please.. What IS your testimony??

( I am so thankful for my bible study. I'm telling you, it continues to amaze me how God has lined up the lessons with exactly what I need. )

A very quick picture update.....

 Really....who couldn't love this??

 

Now this......this little one.....I can love.

She was cheesin' for me one day.

Snuggles on the couch one winter morning.

Emma was pushing Na-Na all over the house. It was really quite funny.

Emma wasn't enjoying her 1st time playing out in the snow. She wasn't too impressed.

 She couldn't wait to get inside.

On the other hand......

J couldn't wait to play.....

Guess who else couldn't wait to play??

Ei yi yi.....

I'm not ready for this.

I do love snow.....

But, I am ready for flip flop weather.

Mads said she was gonna take the dogs on a walk.....she didn't last long.

lol