Trusting God With Your Troubles..

So you’re having trouble trusting God with your troubles today? Trusting God can sometimes be difficult. Especially when we don’t understand. I see you at the grocery store, as anxiety floods over you, while you wonder if you will have enough money in your account to cover your expenses.

I see you at church, trying to fake a smile while you are really frustrated that God has not answered your prayer yet.

I see you weary from being with the kids all day with no break in sight as you look at your never-ending to-do list.

I see you leading that meeting at work and the load of expectations from your coworkers and demands from your boss weighing heavy on your shoulders.

I see you sweating as you take that exam stressing over the fact that you must pass to keep your scholarship.

I see you at the hospital overflowing with fear caused by health concerns and medical bills.

I see you on the phone with that family member wondering how bad things have to get for them before they decide to turn their lives around.

I see the mountain of real pressures you face every single day and I want to tell you one thing I do know from experience: God is greater than your problems and burdens. Psalm 46 reminds us who God is in the face of our troubles:

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. (Psalm 46:1-3)

This psalm always reminds me to take my focus off of my issues and place it on God. When we shift from thinking about how bad, impossible and overwhelming our circumstances are to how capable, powerful and loving our God is, we will find our loads a lot less heavy. More importantly we will realize we are not carrying these loads alone. How do we do that? How do we find God in the midst of a storm? We find the answer in the same Psalm. Verse 10 reminds us:

Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. (Psalm 46:10)

You will not find God in the worried or anxious thoughts or in trying to control everything yourself. We find Him in the stillness, in trusting Him even in the storm that the God who makes the rain will not allow it to rain forever. And it is then we can rest in the knowledge that He alone is God.

I encourage you today, no matter what you are facing, to take just a few minutes to turn to God, to look to Him for help and to remember you are never alone.

By Christina Patterson