Faith Crisis? Don’t Stop Now. You’re Almost There.

I have many friends who are facing a faith crisis -- some in their health, their finances, their relationships and/or simply fear for what the future holds. After all, if we watched and listened to the news long enough, and believed it – we could all take a tail spin.
It's not that we don't believe in God or believe His Word. It is that our symptoms are speaking louder than our faith. Let's stop and consider that there is nothing too difficult for the great "I AM" Who is our Lord God. Let's strengthen our resolve to truly believe Him for complete restoration in His perfect timing. Let's be strong and immovable! Let's just BREATHE and have FAITH that God is working out everything for the best!

We know that this isn’t the end of our story. It’s a chapter in our story, and there are other chapters to write after this one. Our Savior isn’t a cold-hearted cosmic judge disconnected from our pain. He’s a loving Father and Friend who is walking with us and even carrying us through life’s most difficult times. Jesus said, “Never will I leave you or forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5)

On this side of eternity, we don’t always see how God takes the broken pieces and creates something beautiful with them, but we can have the assurance in knowing that He will redeem the circumstances somehow in His perfect timing. Perhaps some of the good He'll bring is using the pain to bring us closer to Him. At the end of each day, we can still proclaim: "God is good. All the time. And, all the time, God is good!" So don't stop now. Just breathe. Keep having strong FAITH that everything will work out for the best. You're almost to your miracle!

Psalm 107:19-21 "Then they cried out to the Lord because of their problems. And He saved them from their troubles. He gave His command and healed them. He saved them from the grave. Let them give thanks to the Lord for His faithful love. Let them give thanks for the miracles He does for his people."

Don’t STOP Now!!! Just Keep Swimming!

Don’t STOP Now!!! Just Keep Swimming!
I've watched so many animated movies with my grandchildren that I have plenty of material for my blogs/posts for a long time. Hence, today's inspiration was the hilarious “Finding Nemo” movie., Dory said to Nemo when he was down about his circumstances “"When life gets you down, you know what you gotta do? Just keep swimming."

In other words....DON'T STOP! Keep going to the finish line!
You know what I mean. We start a new fitness routine or a new diet or join a gym or a new healthy-eating regime…..and after a few weeks, when we didn’t get the results as fast as we thought we would…..we quit. It was either too hard, too restrictive, didn’t have enough time to fit it into our schedule, or life happened and it just didn’t pan out.

Or maybe it looks like this. We start praying for something or someone, and when the answer doesn't come sooner than later, we quit praying about that something or someone.
Maybe in our marriage or other relationship, we start having relationship "issues", so we decide to write them off because it just isn't worth the frustration to deal another day with that someone.

I read this scripture and it says (my paraphrase) “DON’T STOP NOW”!! Actually, these are the words from Hebrews 10:35-36 “Do not throw away your confidence. You need to persevere so you believe what God has promised.”

The question is "How relentless are we?" How willing are we to continue seeking God for the answers to our most complex problems? How often do we throw in the towel and abort our dreams because nothing is assuring us of the finish line?

Not an animated film -- but a TRUE story in a REAL place was when I was in the Holy Lands last June, I had my feet on the ground where the walls of Jericho came tumbling down, when at God’s command, Joshua and his troops marched once around those walls for six days and then on the 7th day – walked around them seven times on that one day And those walls did come tumbling down. What a great victory story!!! But, the story wouldn’t be told today if Joshua and his men had stopped short of completing their task. If they stopped on the 3rd time around – there would be no story. They didn't stop!

Instead of quitting on our projects, our goals, our dreams and our relationships, we, too, must just keep marching, just keep walking, just keep exercising, just keep praying,, just keep loving, just keep crawling…..and inching our way to the finish line. With diligence and a lot of hard work, we’ll unlock the potential inside of us to accomplish whatever we set our hearts, hands and mind to. That's when we'll succeed. We determined that GIVING UP and stopping short is NOT an option.
Philippians 1:6 “6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you is faithful to complete it.”

JUST KEEP SWIMMING!!!