My Wonderful Husband

This morning on the radio I was reminded that my husband is a hero. The radio guy was sharing a story about a man he met who was working 2 jobs. He commented that that guy was a true hero because he was willing to do whatever it took to support his family.

So often I don't appreciate my husband enough. For almost a year and a half now he has been working 2 jobs to support our family. Lately, I have been so consumed with schedules not working out and insurance information being wrong that I haven't stop to tell him how much I appreciate what he is doing for us.

My husband is my hero.

Who is yours? What amazing every day person is making a difference in your life right now? Be sure to let them know how much they mean to you.

Trusting God

Today I am having a lot of trouble with this particular topic.

Has God provided for me in the past? Yes!
Has God always been there for me and brought the right people when needed? Of course!

So, why am I having so much trouble believing that He will do it again?

Today I am going to post a bunch of verses on this topic as a reminder to us all that we need God. Period. Nothing else can satisfy us. People and things will always fail us.

Dueteronomy 1:29-32
"Then I said to you, 'Do not be shocked, nor fear them. The LORD your God who goes before you will Himself fight on your behalf, just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness where you saw how the LORD your God carried you, just as a man carries his son, in all the way which you have walked until you came to this place.' But for all this, you did not trust the LORD your God,"
As Moses pointed out to the Israelites, we need to remember what God has done for us and believe (trust) that He will take care of us even still.

II Kings 19:14-20
"Then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD. Hezekiah prayed before the LORD and said, "O LORD, the God of Israel, who are enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see; and listen to the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have devastated the nations and their lands and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. Now, O LORD our God, I pray, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O LORD, are God." Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah saying, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard you.' "
Hezekiah took the information that all these other kingdoms have been destroyed and their gods couldn't save them directly to the Lord. How often I fail to take my discouraging news to the Lord and fail to ask Him to show His greatness and His power. If you are struggling with some discouraging news, as am I, I want to challenge you to pray like Hezekiah did and watch God work in your life. The Lord will hear you.

II Chronicles 14:10-12
"So Asa went out to meet him, and they drew up in battle formation in the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah. Then Asa called to the LORD his God and said, "LORD, there is no one besides You to help in the battle between the powerful and those who have no strength; so help us, O LORD our God, for we trust in You, and in Your name have come against this multitude. O LORD, You are our God; let not man prevail against You." So the LORD routed the Ethiopians before Asa and before Judah, and the Ethiopians fled. "
Such complete trust in the Lord!!

Job 39:10-12
"Can you bind the wild ox in a furrow with ropes, Or will he harrow the valleys after you? Will you trust him because his strength is great And leave your labor to him? Will you have faith in him that he will return your grain And gather it from your threshing floor?"
I am often guilty of trusting in the things of the world to get me through. I trust in my job or my husband's job instead of trusting in God. We can't trust in animals . . . or people or things to sustain us. Only God can do that.

Psalm 9:9-11
"The LORD also will be a stronghold for the oppressed, A stronghold in times of trouble; And those who know Your name will put their trust in You, For You, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You. Sing praises to the LORD, who dwells in Zion; Declare among the peoples His deeds. "
The Lord is the strongest of all strongholds. We need to put our trust in him when we are going through times of trouble.

Psalm 56:2-4
"My foes have trampled upon me all day long, For they are many who fight proudly against me. When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You. In God, whose word I praise, In God I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid What can mere man do to me?"
Sometimes our foes aren't literal people. What foes do you have in your life? What are you fighting against or what is fighting against you? We can and need to put our trust in God because nothing else can harm us if he is on our side. Romans 8:31

Psalm 143:7-12
"Answer me quickly, O LORD, my spirit fails; Do not hide Your face from me, Or I will become like those who go down to the pit. Let me hear Your lovingkindness in the morning; For I trust in You; Teach me the way in which I should walk; For to You I lift up my soul. Deliver me, O LORD, from my enemies; I take refuge in You. Teach me to do Your will, For You are my God; Let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground. For the sake of Your name, O LORD, revive me In Your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble. And in Your lovingkindness, cut off my enemies And destroy all those who afflict my soul, For I am Your servant. "
A good prayer for all of us who are struggling with this issue of trust.

Jeremiah 17:6-8
"For he will be like a bush in the desert And will not see when prosperity comes, But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, A land of salt without inhabitant. Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD And whose trust is the LORD. For he will be like a tree planted by the water, That extends its roots by a stream And will not fear when the heat comes; But its leaves will be green,
And it will not be anxious in a year of drought Nor cease to yield fruit."
I, right now, am like that bush in the desert. Ironically, my memory verses for the first half of this month are Jeremiah 17:7-8, so when this came up in my trust word study I felt like this was the Lord hitting me with a 2x4. I definitely need to learn to trust in Him completely and turn my desert into a meadow.

Ok, I think this is getting long enough. I have thoroughly 'enjoyed' my study on trust this morning. I really needed it. Thanks for joining me. I hope that these verses are as much of a blessing to you as they are to me. I purposefully stuck with the old testament because of the poetry and stories that we don't often remember when we go through tough times.