Thank you, Lord.

I hit the power button and waited for the three lights to announce that the machine was ready to brew. I was irritated that it took a whole minute for the welcoming blue lights to start blinking and another 30 seconds to brew my morning delight. “Give it to me now!” I thought to myself.

That’s when it dawned on me: my ability to wait has certainly changed since I moved to America. I remember the shock I experienced on my first American dining experience eighteen years ago.

My husband picked me up at the airport and we stopped at a restaurant for lunch. The waiter was at our table in 30 seconds. We were served in 10 minutes. The bill was delivered while our food was still hot on the plates. I felt rushed. Surprised. Outraged, almost. I was used to the Brazilian way, where dining is an event to be savored, enjoyed, relished. We take our time. We talk a lot. Eat a lot. Seize the moment.

Rushing isn’t confined to the United States of America, though. My once laid-back Brazil has also quickly morphed into a fast-paced, impatient society in the past decade. Rushing is not the American way. It’s the millennium way. We want it and we want it now. We rush success, we rush intimacy and, invariably, we rush God.

Rushing is not the American way. It’s the millennium way. We want it and we want it now. We rush success, we rush intimacy and, invariably, we rush God. #RechargeWednesday
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The problem with the concept is in the very nature of God. God is patient. He can’t be rushed. He does not believe in instant anything. Rather, he believes in process. It takes time to listen to him. It takes effort and time to know him. And, in my experience, he certainly never seems to be in a hurry to deliver his promises.

God is patient. He can’t be rushed. He does not believe in instant anything. Rather, he believes in process. #RechargeWednesday
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Waiting is a difficult task. Depending on your personality, it’s nearly impossible. If you are a go-getter like me, it probably kills you not being able to control the timing and outcome of your projects and dreams. Waiting on true love. Waiting on that promotion. Waiting to conceive. It stinks, really. Our flesh screams: “Hurry up with the lesson, already. Just tell me what I need to learn. I’m ready to move on!” However, I believe that the reason for the waiting is often beyond our realm of understanding. Because it’s really not just about us.

In retrospect, I realize that I have often waited on something because the people involved in my prayer request were not ready. Or the situation wasn’t ready. Or I wasn’t ready.  I also realize how God has used the time I waited to strengthen me. Mature me. Change me. Change others around me.

In retrospect, I realize that I have often waited on something because the people involved in my prayer request were not ready. Or the situation wasn’t ready. Or I wasn’t ready.
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Indeed, when we fully grasp that God is a good Father, and, as such, He seeks to make us better people…When we realize that the process of waiting is one of His tools to accomplish just that, we stop expecting Him to act as a one-cup coffee machine. We understand that the rewards of a life of trust far surpass the gifts we seek.

Better yet, we realize that, as long as we listen and obey, He never fails us and always delivers on time.

For from days of old they have not heard or perceived by ear, Nor has the eye seen a God besides You, Who acts in behalf of one who waits for Him. ~ Isaiah 64:4
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LINKUP is open! Today, I share a reflection on one of the most important ingredients to be able to follow God's plan: Patience. Join us and share your blog!
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We waited.

But the paperwork never arrived. Weeks later, the same voice apologized on the phone. Unforeseen circumstances arose. The position was canceled. We’re weren’t moving to Iowa. We were moving, though… we had to.

We waited.

Living out of suitcases at my in-laws’ house, we sought work.

We waited.

My husband showed me a job listing. It wasn’t what was expected. We knew one person in the whole region. But the Lord said yes with perfect clarity and abundant confirmation. One Skype interview and a phone offer later, we were scheduling another moving truck. This one was bound for the unknown of Minnesota.

With just two weeks to prepare and little in the bank, we signed a lease online with high hopes.

We’d waited.

The Lord had made the way. We believed it.

…Then we pulled up to the apartment complex.

Signing paperwork, we discovered they changed the lease from what we originally signed. Shrugging, the woman said “well, yes, it’s more expensive than you agreed to. But you just moved across the country. What can you do?” The deceit stung.

Our lease was canceled. Tired of waiting, my prayer was “Lord, you brought us here. Why??”

In a new state, 24 hours away from home, we drove to a storage unit. We moved all our stuff into a 6-foot cement prison. On that October day, the first snowfall drifted down. We stayed with a friend for a whole homeless week, searching frantically.

We waited.

The Lord provided a place to live within a chaotic week. But not a good job for me. We waited through church challenges, friendlessness, and open opposition at my part-time job.

My prayer?

“Lord you brought us here. Why?”

I wasn’t ungrateful. I’ve lived much worse.

But never had the Lord so clearly made a way where there was no way, only to bring me to something I couldn’t make sense of.

Has God ever made a way where there was no way, only to bring you to something you couldn't make sense of?
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Exodus became more personal to me. We’d just left a harder chapter of life. We’d just faced promise after promise of newness, waiting until the Lord said “go.” He parted some unbelievable waters for us and led us through on dry land.

When we arrived, the land stayed metaphorically dry and literally frozen. Life felt parched and biting.

I spent much of my time grumbling like the Israelites in the desert: “now you have brought us into this wilderness to starve us all to death” (Exodus 16:3.)

God, in fact, had different purposes.

Since our Minnesota wilderness waiting season, the Lord has reminded me of the “whys” I was too discontent to notice then.

It was in our waiting we learned firsthand about how God gives peace when our circumstances are intimidating.
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It was in our waiting we learned firsthand about how God gives peace when our circumstances are intimidating. We’ll never forget how He parted the way and the assurance we had, even as I grumbled, that He was with us and leading us.

We learned an awful lot about prayer. Our marriage grew immensely while knowing no one but each other. We eventually met amazing people.

While in Minnesota, we were blessed by the Lord’s provision through miraculous financing, too-coincidental of timing, unexpected gifts, and even the car we are driving today. My husband and I had time with his best friend we never would have if we didn’t live close.

I also learned about the blessing of loneliness. I learned what it is to wake up to mundane circumstances and immediately turn to the Lord. It was in Minnesota God taught me to write my first manuscript and challenged me to read His whole Word for the first time.

It was there I began to make memories with the Lord. It was there I learned the sound of His voice.

I still pray that prayer though- just a little revised.

“Lord, you brought us here. You know why.”

I pray it even when our circumstances seem settled.

Because I know while we’re waiting on God, He’s always both bringing us out and drawing us in.

How has God answered your prayers in new situations or times of loneliness?

{A version of this post was originally published here.}

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LINKUP is open! This week, my friend @BethanyMcIlrath encourages us to remember that we may not know why God allows hard circumstances, but He does. And that should be enough. Join us?
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However, as the worn, torn magazines in waiting rooms around the world can attest, patience in the waiting isn’t a natural virtue.

Waiting makes some of us crazy.

In fact, I’m pretty sure if God wanted to test us before we entered heaven to see how much we learned on earth, my exam would be “Sit right here. He’ll call you when He’s ready.”

I’d be pacing the clouds, trying to get through to the Lord via the prayer line: “Hello God. You brought me here. This is the appointment you set. How is it you are not on time?!”

What maddens me most about waiting is the helpless feeling of having no control over what’s going on. Waiting seems passive, and I am not passive.

Truthfully though, waiting isn’t a passive process.

Much like active listening, active waiting is a participatory activity.

Much like active listening, active waiting is a participatory activity.
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Active waiting looks like:

• Preparing
• Anticipating
• Hoping
• Being brave and courageous
• Watching

These are words God features in His Word. They are spoken by God in reference to His call to wait.

With a brief look at what God says about waiting, I’m finding the idea “godly waiting” means sitting quietly doing nothing while completely at peace is just plain wrong.

We shouldn’t wait on the Lord feigning patience.

We can actively wait, participating as God does with a patience that anticipates.

His example of waiting isn’t glamorous or easy, but it’s clear:

“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” –2 Peter 3:9

Waiting isn’t about speed or suffering, but being purposeful.

Waiting isn’t about speed or suffering, but being purposeful.
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God’s waiting is done with the perfect, purposeful patience of One who knows the wait is worth it.

God believes you and I are worth waiting for- that all people still coming to repentance are worth the wait.

In waiting, He does not sit idly by. He exposes our need for repentance and brings us to it. He offers forgiveness. He enjoys transforming every person up until the last one He is waiting on.

With God, waiting isn’t about the end, but about the beginning.

With God, waiting isn’t about the end, but about the beginning.
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We wait as those preparing, anticipating, hoping, being brave, and watching carefully because there are new beginnings brought about by the Lord Himself.

It doesn’t matter if you’re waiting on good news or bad. Whether you’re waiting for dreams to be realized or simply for something to change. Maybe you feel all that’s left to wait for is an end of some sort.

Wait assured: God has a beginning ready for you and your “not yet” time is not a wasted time. Instead, your waiting is participation in God’s plan for your life. No sitting-on-hands required- they have a big job to do praying. No self-muttering needed- you have Someone waiting with you.

He’s demonstrated it for all of time to know: waiting is a purposeful place of peace, joy, and growth for the faithful.

(A version of this post was previously published here)

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LINKUP is open! Today, my friend @BethanyMcIlrath shares great perspective on God's purpose in our waiting. Join us?
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The incident happened during one of my church’s recent choir rehearsals, and it made me think about the importance and misunderstood beauty of life’s pauses … and even God’s silence.

There is no music in rests, but they are a crucial part of any song. Any musician knows it: Composers create the rests in music as an intrinsic and valuable part of each piece. By adding dramatic pauses, great composers elevate the quality of any masterpiece. No, there is indeed no music in a rest, but it nevertheless creates music; therefore, when performers slur over or omit the designed pauses in a music score, they crush the melody as it was intended by its creator.

Everyone experiences times when life’s music is broken off by a long “rest.” Times of waiting. Times when it seems like nothing is happening. Times when it feels like God has forgotten us.

To me, personally, when it comes to life’s “rests,” I am naturally tempted to act as that one individual who lifts up her voice when the music is supposed to come to a pause.

“Hurry up, already.”

“Why is nothing happening?”

“Let me do something!”

“Oops, my bad. I should have paused.”

Yes — I have hurried up the music and sped up the tempo many times before. I have been impatient and dismayed at life’s rests. Through the years, however, I have become increasingly aware of God’s hand during those periods of seeming nothingness. We may not understand the silence nor see the growth, but He is nonetheless at work.

Farmers also know this concept. They prepare the soil, plant the seeds, and look at their bare fields for weeks or months, before spotting the first sprouts. They know it’s time for earth to do the growth. It’s time to rest in the assurance that the harvest will come. You will certainly never see a farmer dig up the seed to make sure it is growing properly. They know better — it is!

Patience and trust. Farmers know the concept too well. We must learn from them and not meddle when God calls us to simply wait and trust, and understand that God’s silence does not mean He is not near.

Late British evangelist and author Dr. George Campbell Morgan said it best: “Waiting for God is not laziness. Waiting for God is not going to sleep. Waiting for God is not the abandonment of effort. Waiting for God means, first, activity under command; second, readiness for any new command that may come; third, the ability to do nothing until the command is given.”

In our impatience and pride, we often think nothing is happening unless we are doing something. And so, we speed up the tempo, fail to pause before speaking, or get our hands moving when we are called to be still.
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As we do so, we fail to understand that God designed the “rest” for a reason. It’s not our turn to do anything. Yet we must remember that the music is not over. He is still holding the baton and knows when to call us to sing again. And sometimes, wonder of wonders! Those dreadful “rests” come just before the climax of life’s music score.

This article was originally published in Patricia’s Column for The Atlanta Journal Constitution on Saturday – May 26, 2018.

The post The Waiting Game – NOT Your Turn {The Atlanta Journal Constitution} appeared first on Soaring With Him Ministries.

“Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are those who wait on Him”

I know better. I’ve seen God’s faithfulness. Still, in a season of hard, where I don’t see his answers, it’s easy to let doubt creep in or rather barge in. It’s then, I want to say, “Where are you God? Are you there? Do you care?”

But you and I both know by now we can’t see what God sees and we can’t know what he knows. However, we can trust that when we pray, a plan gets laid. We may not know how and we may not know the when, but we know the will.

He will.

Because it’s in God’s character to answer, and redeem. We see it over and over in Scripture.

When I find myself in the hard place of wait, it’s comforting to read about someone else who has waited there. And that’s why I like the story of Hannah. No one fits the bill of being blessed for the waiting more than Hannah. Her name even means blessed. But at the time of her dilemma, around 1105 BC, she felt anything but.

During Hannah’s time, children were a woman’s legacy — her honor — particularly if she had a boy child. However, if she were barren, like Hannah (the Bible says specifically, in 1 Samuel 1:5 that God closed her womb), you were thought of as less than or even a sinner that God was punishing.

But Hannah was a God-fearing woman, who desperately wanted a child. She probably prayed day and night, wondering why God was making her wait especially when she got bullied for being barren.

Hannah was married to a man named Elkanah. Though Elkanah was a godly man, as was the custom of the time, he had two wives. His other wife was named Peninnah. Now, Peninnah was prolific. She had many sons and daughters. And she was jealous of Hannah because she thought Elkanah loved Hannah more. She viciously picked on Hannah, every chance she got.

Peninnah’s best opportunity to hound Hannah was a yearly trek they all made together to the temple some fourteen miles away. Every year they went there for a festival of rejoicing where sadness was prohibited. By the time a they got to Shiloh, Hannah had been ridiculed to the point of despair and couldn’t eat. One such time she was so hungry and despondent, she went to the temple and poured her heart out to the Lord. She had had enough. Crying out to the Lord for a child, she vowed this baby she prayed for to be dedicated back to God’s service for all the days of the his life.

God knew Hannah would make this costly vow. He also knew she’s make good on it.

Israel needed a righteous judge to rule and Hannah needed to be blessed. So at the right time, God’s time, He answered Hannah’s prayer. She became pregnant with the child, a son she would name Samuel.

And though Hannah gave up her son at the age of three years to the service of the Lord, just as promised, she was blessed.

Samuel would be the greatest judge in Israel’s history anointing Israel’s first king, Saul… and her greatest earthly king, David.

Hannah waited
God waited for Hannah to surrender the very thing she wanted most
God greatly blessed Hannah

In this hurry up, give it to me now world, it’s comforting to know God has a plan. Certain things have to happen for others to take place. There is a purpose for our pain, and God is working in the wait.
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Hannah’s story encourages us to know, God is forever in control.

“Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.” (Habakkuk 2:3b)

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“To do nothing at all is the most difficult thing in the world, the most difficult and the most intellectual.” This quote from 19th-century writer Oscar Wilde was used in a psychology article that I read recently. The article explained the characteristics of manic defense. An example of manic defense is the person who spends all of his or her time rushing around from one task to the next, unable to tolerate even short periods of inactivity. The more I read about manic defense, the more I realized how these characteristics have become rampant in the western societies, as we have become increasingly addicted to endless activities, even from an early age.

Everyone portrays characteristics of manic defense at some point in time, but some people use it to such an extent that it becomes impossible for them to handle even short periods of free time. You find them reaching out to their cell phones every other minute while walking in the park. You find them volunteering to plan one more party, and adding one more activity to their already over-committed schedule. You find them filling even their vacation time with nonstop activities.

And because it’s almost impossible for them to be still, they often don’t make time to sit quietly before God and seek his will before acting.

It’s a huge paradox for those of us who wish to follow God’s plan for our lives. Because, more often than not, finding the answer to our prayers takes time and quietness before God. And he is never in a hurry to act.

He is more concerned about molding and shaping our character than immediately answering our prayers.

God is never in a hurry to act. He is more concerned about molding and shaping our character than immediately answering our prayers.
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It takes courage and faith to wait. It’s much easier to settle for immediate satisfaction than to wait for the right job, the right person to marry, or for justice when someone wrongs us. But if we wish to receive God’s best, then we must commit to deny our impulse to act, and simply be still in his presence before moving forward.

I don’t like it at all. Much like many of you, I want to receive the task, plan my way to accomplish it, and get to work. It’s hard to sit still and wait for the answer. But as I look back, I realize that, were it not for the times God made me wait and do nothing, I would still be the same unwise, impatient and impulsive person I was 20 years ago. Worse yet, I would have missed out on so many blessings received after a period of quiet obedience and stillness.

Indeed, waiting has been the No. 1 tool God has used to strengthen my faith and testimony. It’s not an easy task, though. But it makes it a little easier when we realize that, while we have the option to deny every urge to act, God never stops working.

In the quietness of our waiting, as we introspectively look within ourselves and deliberately choose to tame our impulsive nature and anxious hearts, we can take comfort in the certainty that he is going before us, preparing the circumstances in order to deliver his best, in his perfect time.

In my humble opinion, Wilde’s conclusion was only partially correct. Doing nothing is indeed one of the hardest thing to do, but it takes more than rationale to accomplish it.

It takes faith.

Faith that we are part of a bigger plan than our personal circumstances, and that there is a God, the master of it all, whose plans for us are perfect, even when the seeming hopelessness of our situations scream otherwise.

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“Fortunately”, I thought, “I don’t have to wait for an entire pot of java to brew”. Several years ago, I discovered the marvel of one-cup coffee machines.

Thank you, Lord.

I hit the power button and waited for the three lights to announce that the machine was ready to brew. I was irritated that it took a whole minute for the welcoming blue lights to start blinking and another 30 seconds to brew my morning delight.

“Give it to me now!” I thought to myself.

That’s when it dawned on me: Good grief! My ability to wait has certainly changed since I moved to America.

I remember the shock I experienced on my first American dining experience eighteen years ago.

My husband picked me up at the airport and we stopped at a restaurant for lunch. The waiter was at our table in 30 seconds. We were served in 10 minutes. The bill was delivered while our food was still hot on the plates.

I felt rushed. Surprised. Outraged, almost. I was used to the Brazilian way, where dining is an event to be savored, enjoyed, relished. We take our time. We talk a lot. Eat a lot.

Seize the moment.

Rushing isn’t confined to the United States of America, though. My once laid-back Brazil has also quickly morphed into a fast-paced, impatient society in the past decade.

Rushing is not the American way. It’s the millennium way. We want it and we want it now. We rush success, we rush intimacy and, invariably, we rush God.

The problem with the concept is in the very nature of God.

God is patient. He can’t be rushed. He does not believe in instant anything. Rather, He believes in process. It takes time to listen to Him. It takes effort and time to know Him.

And, in my experience, He certainly never seems to be in a hurry to deliver His promises.

Waiting is a difficult task. Depending on your personality, it’s nearly impossible. If you are a go-getter like me, it probably kills you not being able to control the timing and outcome of your projects and dreams.

Waiting on true love. Waiting on that promotion. Waiting to conceive. It stinks, really.

Our flesh screams: “Hurry up with the lesson, already. Just tell me what I need to learn. I’m ready to move on!” However, I believe that the reason for the waiting is often beyond our realm of understanding.

Because it’s really not just about us.

In retrospective, I realize that I have often waited on something because the people involved in my prayer request were not ready. Or the situation wasn’t ready. Or I wasn’t ready.  I also realize how God has used the time I waited to strengthen me. Mature me. Change me. Change others around me.

Indeed, when we fully grasp that God is a good Father, and, as such, He seeks to make us better people…When we realize that the process of waiting is one of His tools to accomplish just that, we stop expecting Him to act as a one-cup coffee machine.

We understand that the rewards of a life of trust far surpass the gifts we seek. Better yet, we realize that, as long as we listen and obey, He never fails us and always delivers on time.

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Everyone portrays characteristics of manic defense at some point in time, but some people use it to such an extent that it becomes impossible for them to handle even short periods of free time. You find them reaching out to their cell phones every other minute while walking in the park. You find them volunteering to plan one more party, and adding one more activity to their already over-committed schedule. You find them filling even their vacation time with nonstop activities.

And because it’s almost impossible for them to be still, they often don’t make time to sit quietly before God and seek his will before acting.

It’s a huge paradox for those of us who wish to follow God’s plan for our lives. Because, more often than not, finding the answer to our prayers takes time and quietness before God. And he is never in a hurry to act. He is more concerned about molding and shaping our character than immediately answering our prayers.

God is never in a hurry to act. He is more concerned about molding and shaping our character than immediately answering our prayers.
Click To Tweet

It takes courage and faith to wait. It’s much easier to settle for immediate satisfaction than to wait for the right job, the right person to marry, or for justice when someone wrongs us. But if we wish to receive God’s best, then we must commit to deny our impulse to act, and simply be still in his presence before moving forward.

I don’t like it at all. Much like many of you, I want to receive the task, plan my way to accomplish it, and get to work. It’s hard to sit still and wait for the answer. But as I look back, I realize that, were it not for the times God made me wait and do nothing, I would still be the same unwise, impatient and impulsive person I was 20 years ago. Worse yet, I would have missed out on so many blessings received after a period of quiet obedience and stillness.

Indeed, waiting has been the No. 1 tool God has used to strengthen my faith and testimony. It’s not an easy task, though. But it makes it a little easier when we realize that, while we have the option to deny every urge to act, God never stops working. In the quietness of our waiting, as we introspectively look within ourselves and deliberately choose to tame our impulsive nature and anxious hearts, we can take comfort in the certainty that he is going before us, preparing the circumstances in order to deliver his best, in his perfect time.

In my humble opinion, Wilde’s conclusion was only partially correct. Doing nothing is indeed one of the hardest thing to do, but it takes more than rationale to accomplish it. It takes faith. Faith that we are part of a bigger plan than our personal circumstances, and that there is a God, the master of it all, whose plans for us are perfect, even when the seeming hopelessness of our situations scream otherwise.

Patricia Holbrook is a Christian author and national conference speaker. Her book, “Twelve Inches: Bridging the Gap Between What You Know About God and How You Feel,” is available on Kindle, at Barnes and Nobles, Amazon and other retailers.

The post Sometimes the Hardest Thing to Do Is Do Nothing At All {AJC Column} appeared first on Soaring With Him Ministries.

“Hand of God” Painting by artist Young Sung Kim

Passage: Matthew 14:22-34

“Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,”he said, “why did you doubt?” v.31

It was the miracles of miracles.  

The first mass miracle took place in Decapolis, where between ten to fifteen thousand people were fed with two fish and five loaves of bread.

I can only imagine the excitement, as the multitudes watched the fish and bread multiply before their eyes. Yahweh Jireh, their Provider, fed the hungry in an unprecedented display of His glorious provision to the masses.

The disciples’ hearts must have overflowed with joy… and Pride.

After all, they were His selected men. The ones who were chosen to walk alongside the Christ.

As we read the text, it’s interesting to realize that, instead of allowing them to remain with the crowd a little longer, Jesus immediately “made” His disciples get into the boat, cross the sea and go to the other side ahead of Him, while He dismissed the crowd (v. 22). I believe Jesus knew their hearts were swelling with pride for being part of Messiah’s inner circle. They needed to withdraw, get away from the accolades of men and the material substance of the miracle, regroup, and realize that He had come to give them much more than just daily bread.

He knew their faith needed more testing and they were about to get it.

Success and popularity have the power to excite us and make us start hoping for great things. The problem is that, though we hardly ever realize it, our hopes for spiritual victories too often include hopes for our own advancement. Therefore, after a season of miracles and supernatural blessings, God often pulls us out of the hype and excitement, and sends us on to the next journey of testing, where we will realize that our faith must grow in the same proportion as our humility and dependence upon God and God alone.

It’s true – We see the bread before our eyes and our faith grows within us. After all, we can touch it, taste it, feel it. The provision and deliverance is real. We can boldly shout to the world: He provides! He heals! He reigns!

But then, just as He did to the disciples, He takes us out of the material and sends us into the sea of the Unknown. In the dark hour, storms rise and our boat tosses about.

Fear rises within us… And we forget.

The eyes which have seen the miracle are suddenly blinded by the darkness around.

The hands which touched Provision become restless.

The tongue which proclaimed the miracle can’t even pray.

We watch the winds and the waves raging at us, and we forget the grand miracle we just witnessed ashore.

In our distress, we see a ‘Ghost’ walking on the water, and we don’t even realize that it is He.

The One who just broke the bread and multiplied the fish… walks towards our situation and we don’t identify Him. The one who heard our heart’s cry… comes to our rescue in the night and we can’t recognize Him past the storm.

Oh, how my heart understands Peter as he realizes it is Jesus who has come to their rescue. How I understand his reason to say, “tell me to come to you on the water!”

He knows Jesus is his safety. He’s eager to believe. He thinks his faith to be strong. He trusts his heart not to wave.

So do we, Peter. So do we.

And yet, as our eyes veer from the Savior’s face and focus on the raging sea, our faith tested once again, we forget the bread and the fish. The storm reveals our weakness…

And we sink.

Oh, Lord, my God, how I truly understand, that it doesn’t matter how many times we’ve watched you act, our feeble hearts so often betray what we know:

That even when You seem to have left us alone, You’re always there…

That all we have to do is call Your name… “LORD! Save me”

And hear You say:

“Take courage! It is I.

Don’t be afraid.

You can walk on water.

You can face the storm.

Because it is My omnipotent hand that calls you out of a life of little faith, to one that watches Me deliver, again and again.

Don’t trust your heart, child.

Just trust My hand.

I’ll pull you out of the icy, stormy waters.

And make them solid ground.

Because wherever I stand… you cannot sink.

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior” Isaiah 43:2

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As I prayed for each of them, it dawned on me — I was once more able to share my story with someone and bring insight and hope to their circumstances. I couldn’t help but feel a surge of thankfulness in my heart. Once again, I found meaning and purpose for the trial I faced years ago.

If we were to be truthful about our prayer lives, I believe most of us would agree that it is mostly centered on our needs, or the needs of those we love. As people of faith, it is only natural that we cry out to God for help in times of trouble. We should do so, indeed. However, when the answer doesn’t come, or when tragedy seems to become the ultimate answer, we find ourselves questioning the truthfulness about God’s unfailing goodness, mercy and love.

In the midst of our storm, as our prayers go unanswered and troubles weigh us down, God’s voice seems to be silent. His love, cold. We shake our heads in disbelief, as we watch the innocent die, or disease take over faithful, godly people.

“Why, God? Why?” we ask.

I’m here to offer a different perspective today. What if we changed the grid by which we sift our lives? What if we were able to distance ourselves from the small sphere of our current reality, and were able to sift our circumstance through the grid of eternity and God’s plan for the people we encounter throughout life’s journey? What if our temporary affliction is indeed producing for us an eternal fruit that far outweighs our troubles today?

What if you could look into your future and realize that, just as it happened to me this week, you will one day be able to strengthen, uplift, equip and encourage someone, just because they will face what you are facing today? In other words, what if your trial is absolutely, undoubtedly, not about you?

It’s a true and proven fact that the best mentors are those who have journeyed through the roads less traveled. People of effective influence are those who face tough challenges and burdens, pressing on through their hardest circumstances, limping through each obstacle in order to cross the finish line. This realization doesn’t change the nature and hardship of our problems, but it can certainly bring perspective and change how we pray. Because if we say that we truly trust God and want him to use us to further his kingdom, then it would do us good to accept the burdens he places in our hands, understanding that they are but tools used to sharpen us and make us the person he chose to fulfill a specific role in his master plan.

Whether our sphere of influence will be limited to the people that live under our roof, or our voices are destined to be heard in the four corners of the world, there is a purpose for each dark valley we cross. As one standing on the other side of many trials, witnessing the countless times I’ve been able to reach out and touch someone’s life because of the lessons learned in each valley, I realize: It was never about me, anyway.

Patricia Holbrook is a Christian author and national conference speaker. Her book, “Twelve Inches: Bridging the Gap Between What You Know About God and How You Feel,” is available on Kindle, at Barnes and Nobles, Amazon and other retailers. Visit her website at www.soaringwithhim.com Email: pholbrook@soaringwithHim.com

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