Trusting in the Lord ... even in the tough times

This past year and a half has been one of the most difficult seasons of my life. I was pregnant. We had to sell a house. I had a baby. We adjusted to life with a baby. We moved into "temporary housing." We made a choice as a family that I would quite a job that I loved to stay home and raise our son full time. We had to adjust our budget to reflect one salary. I've had to find my "place" as a stay-at-home mom. We're renovating a house, about to move in a month, and now other life changes are on the horizon. If I were to imagine that this last year and half would have been like this even two years ago, I would have been incredibly fearful. But the beauty of it all is that God has only given us what we could handle, and He has taught us to trust in his provision along the way. I am incredibly grateful for this past year and a half, and I'm amazed to see how God has blessed us through what seemed to be "tough" at the time! And in reality, I can't imagine what my life would be like without going through this and experiencing God's joy each step of the way (sometimes in hindsight).

In a very prophetic sense, my father-in-law shared this devotional reading with us yesterday:

The education of our faith is incomplete if we have yet to learn that God's providence works through loss, that there is a ministry to us through failure and the fading of things, and that He gives the gift of emptiness. It is, in fact, the material insecurities of life that cause our lives to be spiritually established.

The dwindling brook at the Kerith Ravine, where Elijah sat deep in thought, is a true picture of each of our lives. 'Some time later the brook dried up' -- this is the history of our yesterdays, and a prophecy of our tomorrows.

One way or the other, we must all learn the difference between trusting in the gift and trusting in the Giver. The gift may last for a season, but the Giver is the only eternal love.

The Kerith Ravine was a difficult problem for Elijah until he arrived at Zarephath, and suddenly everything became clear as daylight to him. God's hard instructions are never His last words to us, for the woe, the waste, and the tears of life belong to its interlude, not its finale.

If the Lord had led Elijah directly to Zarephath, he would have missed something that helped to make him a wiser prophet and a better man -- living by faith at Kerith. And whenever our earthly stream or any other outer resource has dried up, it has been allowed so we may learn that our hope and help are in God, who made heaven and earth. F.B. Meyer

It is yet again that we must step out in faith. I wish that I did this with the "everydays" of my life, even though these type of decisions have come in bulk lately and seem to be more of our "everydays." I share this simply to encourage you ladies that when God asks us to step out in faith and to "endure" what seems to be a difficult time in our life, that it's God's provision and God's security that will ALWAYS be there for us -- not our own wisdom, strength or material possessions.  God calls us to rely on Him with everything that we are. The more that we're able to submit to His authority in our lives, regardless of the situation, we're going to find ourselves in a much better place -- the place where God has planned for us. The place where He promises to provide for us and make us prosper, regardless if that translates to our earthly understanding of it or not -- usually it doesn't.

Here's one more encouraging thought in relation to this from Womanly Dominion:

Panic attacks are a common affliction in stressful times. Sarah is a heroine worthy of imitation, for instead of fretting and surrendering, she managed to 'hope in God' and 'do what is right without being frightened by fear.'

We're introduced to Sarah immediately after God called her husband to uproot and move from the familiar hometown surroundings of Ur, across the howling Abrabian Desert, to set up house in the alien land of Canaan (Genesis 12:5). She subdued any fears she may have faced, and courageously went, humbly acquiescing to her husband's conscience convictions.

What a beautiful example of trusting the Lord in tough situations!