Faith, hope, and love, but the most challenging of the three is...

faith...
I think.

"When the train goes through a tunnel and the world gets dark, do you jump out? Of course not, you sit still and trust the engineer to get you through."
-Corrie Ten Boom

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end."
(Ecclesiastes 3:11)

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,
who have been called according to his purpose."
(Romans 8:28)

Susie Larson blasted out a great post a while back on her blog that shares some of the things she learned about standing in faith while waiting for a breakthrough. She gave seven key things to remember when seeking God's best will for your life. Here they are:

1.) Humble yourself before the Living God. Then make time and space to hear from Him. He will speak to you about His desires for you.

2.) Pray and believe that His Word is true and that His promises are backed by the honor of His name. How often do we pray without engaging any of our faith muscles? You know the difference between rote prayers and faith-powered prayers! Once God has revealed His promise to you, be bold like David and lay hold of it through prayer!

3.) Give thanks and embrace contentment for your current lot and your daily blessings. There's much to thank Him for today! He has blessed you today! Stay in the moment while believing Him for the future.

4.) Stay in the Word and trust Him to confirm His way for you through His Word.

5.) Refuse an unbelieving heart or a striving spirit. When you catch yourself living in reaction to these things, get back to that place of peace. Be still and know that HE is God! (Ps. 46:10).

6.) Trust His timing and process in this matter. He knows best and works all things together for the good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28).

7.) Remember that every promise He makes has eternity written all over it. In other words, His blessings to us are for more than just us. His promises to us are meant to spill over onto others and to create a ripple effect that we will carry with into eternity. No matter how we choose to view our hearts' desires, there will always be a broader perspective to gain and a bigger picture to see, because when we fully lay hold of His promises for us, our breakthrough will deeply impact and bless others. That's why things take time. And it's always worth it to wait for God's best.

"He is always good and He puts certain desires in our hearts that we might pray them into fruition. Of course I'm not talking about 'name it claim it' theology, but I am saying that God sets eternity into the heart of man. He drops desires into our hearts because He intends to fulfill them. We must pay attention to the longings of our hearts. Sure, at first they may be unrefined or misdirected, but as we dare to place our hearts' desires before the Living God, He will shape, fill, and bring clarity to His desires for us." -Susie Larson

Isn't that great news? For somebody today that is great news! Has God given you a promise in your life? Don't give up. Keep your faith strong by bringing that thing back to him and thanking him for it. Do not be side-tracked by lesser things in your waiting. He is a good God. This is the verse Susie ended her post with- Isaiah 64:4. I just love this statement that presents itself as one of God's faith-building promises...

Isaiah 64:4 ~ For since the world began, no ear has heard and no eye has seen a God like You, who works for those who wait for Him!

Thank you Lord, for this promise! We put our hope and faith in you, trusting that you are a good God who works all things together for the good of those who are called according to your purpose.

Good news and bad news: Part Two.

"Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." (Psalm 139:16).

Depending on what kind of a day you are having this verse may strike you as good news or bad news. Do you read this verse as a comfort, or as a threat? If you are loving life you may be thoroughly convinced when you read this verse that God must just completely favor you over all of his other children. :) (I'm smiling at myself right now because I am thinking of myself in high school when I was "da bomb!") If I read this verse my Senior Year of High School when I did everything right (according to myself) and I loved me more than anyone else in the world (I lacked quite a bit of self awareness still at this point) then I would have thought, "WOW! GOD REALLY REALLY THINKS I ROCK BECAUSE...look around you... MY LIFE ROCKS!" If; however, you are going through a tough day, week, month, or season in your life and you are struggling to see a way out of your tough spot, which ya know...happens sometimes even to GREAT people...please allow me to take a moment to briefly share why this verse can be a comfort even to you...

You can rest in the Almighty God who has plotted out your life and gone before you. This verse is your reminder that He has already determined your days. In our human thinking, if we are going through a really traumatic experience, or a hard time that lasts too long, and we read a verse like this one, we might be tempted to be upset with God, asking Him "WHY?! Why God, if you knew that you could do ANYTHING with my life would you allow it to turn out this way?" but God is not a "small picture" God. He has plotted it all out before you were even a fetus so that ALL things could work out, come together, mesh, make sense eventually, that the bad can be redeemed, and be used for His glory, etc. etc. Your life was meant to bring HIM glory. I am not really sure who I was bringing more glory in High School, to be REALLY honest, when I was busy being "da Bomb" strutting my stuff from class to class ...ya know? Our lives are meant to bring God glory and sometimes in the process of bringing God glory we have to stop bringing ourselves glory a little bit. I heard an ironic quote by Mark Buchanan the other day that I liked a lot. It was in one of Susie Larson's interviews about Sabbath rest and she was interviewing Mark when he said this:

"We become more like God when we stop pretending we are God."
-Mark Buchanan

He was referring to the pace of our lives, and how we must resist the thinking that we have to run the world and manage all things or the world will fall apart. The whole interview was inspirational, in my opinion. I love all of Susie Larson's interviews, but this one TRULY ranks up there as one of my top ten favorites so far. It's so good!!! Such a great reminder!!! Here's the link to the interview...

::One of Susie Larson's best interviews ever, in my opinion: The Importance of Being Restful.

Okay, so, what does that mean for you? It means you can rest! Even now. You can rest. God's got it covered. He is God, and you can trust in His Sovereignty. Someway, somehow, the rough places will be made smooth again. Resist the temptation to put an exclamation point where God is trying to put a comma, and remember His promises to those who seek God in Isaiah 42:16...

"I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them." (Isaiah 42:16)

PRAYER.
Thank you Lord, for your unfailing Love towards us. Thank you for your patience, your grace and your mercy and the way you make all things new. Thank you for leading us and guiding us on the journey of life. Thank you for new seasons in life...the ones that are meant to teach us, the ones meant to build us up, and the silly fun ones too. Thank you for the gift of life. Be glorified in our lives as we rest in you today Lord, trusting in your Sovereignty, carrying out the work you set before us to do today. Amen.

I can do all things... through Christ who gives me strength.

I love these Lyrics from Matthew West's song, "Strong Enough":

"Hands of mercy, won't you cover me?
Lord, Right now I am asking you to be strong enough."

"Because I am broken down to nothing,
but I am still holding on to the one thing...
You are God and you are strong when I am weak."

"I can do all things...
through Christ who give me strength.
I don't have to be strong enough."

"Even youths grow tired and weary,

and young men stumble and fall;

but those who hope in the Lord

will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not be faint."

This video ROCKS my socks off!! Check this one out...

Shhh... listen... He's talking to you... Can you hear Him?

This video makes me happy.

Because I love this video.
Is it just me or is this video really fun?

Awesome song time.

"God of our Healing" Song.

This is the song that goes with the video clip I just posted right before this one. Awesome song time.

God of our hope.