“Be alert, stand firm in faith, be courageous, be strong.” 1Cor 16:13 (CSB)
When you are independent, a problem solver, and a slight control freak, and you are going through something that you don’t know how to fix, can’t control, can’t see a solution, or there isn’t a solution, it can be tough and frustrating. I am that person. So, when I suddenly lost my husband, and it was a situation I couldn’t fix for myself or my family and was completely out of my control, it was hard. But I knew I had to remain strong for my girls and firm in my faith as we walked through this.
That meant me relinquishing my need to control a situation that I couldn’t control or fix to begin with and truly leaning into God and my belief that he would see us through. I spent a lot of time praying for strength and answers to all my questions while hanging on to the belief that God was there with me, walking with me and sometimes carrying me on this journey. I knew in my heart that God would use this for good and to his glory, but it’s hard for us as humans to have faith in something we can’t see, much less understand. But faith is all we have to help us through those valleys; without it we would be lost. Even the smallest bit of faith, if we hold on to it and lean into God, can help us through.
It has been a little over five years now, and it hasn’t always been easy to stand firm in my faith, but through all of it, I have seen God use me and what I went through to help others who find themselves in similar situations. Not just by my words spoken to them, but by the way that my faith has helped me walk down this road of loss, grief, and uncertainty for a future that now didn’t look anything like I had always thought it would. I am living proof that God can take those shattered pieces, those that can’t just be mended or repaired, and make something new and beautiful from them.
My future doesn’t look anything like I always thought it would, but it does look exactly like God had planned long before I was even born. We just have to stand firm in our faith and “Let go and Let God” because his plans are so much better than our plans, and his love for us is relentless.
“For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So, we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.” 2 Cor 4:17-18 (NLT)
We would like to thank Torrie Gilleland for writing this post.
Women's Ministry 