Monthly Archives: February 2020

When God Finds Us

a girl sits alone
photo credit: Brooke Cagle

Almost every morning, Matt gets his Bose speaker and turns it up to play this song as we start our day- Alive and Breathing by Matt Maher. Whenever that song comes on, I start smiling. Here are the words to the chorus.

Joy still comes in the morning
Hope still walks with the hurting
If you’re still alive and breathing
Praise the Lord
Don’t stop dancing and dreaming
There’s still Good News worth repeating
So lift your head and keep singing
Praise the Lord- Matt Maher

The words are such an encouragement and the music is upbeat. It’s the perfect song to start your day with. It puts a smile on my face and reminds me today is a new day. It’s another chance for God to work in my life and in my circumstances.

Where God Finds Us

As I think about those words, I think back to the verses I read in my morning time this week. I read the book of Hosea. Hosea writes a few verses about Jacob, the twin of Esau.

Brought to his knees,

    Jacob wept and prayed.

God found him at Bethel.

    That’s where he spoke with him.

God is God-of-the-Angel-Armies,

    God-Revealed, God-Known. Hosea 12:5 (MSG)

Where did God find Jacob? God found him on his knees weeping and praying. God often meets us in our darkest hours, when we’re brought to our knees. When everything in our life has fallen apart, and fear and desperation drive us to our knees, that ‘s where God finds us.

When God Finds Us

When God found Jacob, He spoke with him and revealed himself. We know the full story. God wrestled with Jacob. Jacob refused to let God go until God blessed him. God will find you in your time of need. He will speak to you, and He will reveal Himself to you. It may not be today, it may not be tomorrow, but God will find you and reveal Himself to you. How do I know this? Because that’s what God has done for me time and time again.

How God Finds Us

There are so many different ways God can find us and reveal Himself to us. Here are just a few of the ways God has revealed Himself to me over the years.

  1. Through His Word. God has encouraged my heart innumerable times through reading His Word during my morning time. There have been so many times that I read a verse during my morning time that brings tears to my eyes and reminds me that God loves me and is for me. Read My Best Tips for an Effective Morning Time to get your own morning time started.
  2. In church. So often, God will use the words that Matt says on a Sunday morning to bring a sense of peace and comfort to my heart. He will say a phrase or explain a verse that God knew I needed to hear that day.
  3. Through the words of a book. So often, someone else’s story will remind me of God’s unfailing goodness and faithfulness. Sometimes the book reminds me that I have life so good and reminds me to be thankful for my life, my health, and the blessings around me.
  4. Through a blog post. I subscribe and get lots of emails from bloggers in my inbox. Often God uses the words of a particular blog post to encourage me.
  5. Through a podcast. Many times I have found myself crying while washing the dishes as I listen to a pastor preach or someone tell their story of God’s faithfulness to them during a trial.

**Click HERE for my book, blog, and podcast recommendations**

He Will Find You

In the hardest seasons of my life, I have fallen on my knees and prayed and wept. God has found me there and wrapped his loving arms around me. It may be through His Word, a sermon, a book, a blog post, a podcast, or some other form; but he will find a way to remind me of his goodness and faithfulness.

I don’t know what you are going through today or what may be in your future, but I know that God will come to you when you need Him the most. When you find yourself on your knees weeping and praying, that’s where He will find you. Then He will reveal Himself to you. He will remind you that He loves you and is for you, and He hasn’t forgotten you.

Digging Deep and Developing Grit

Fourth-Grade Math

My fourth-grade son was sitting next to me at the table today, working on his math. His math for the day wasn’t anything new, it was all review. As he worked hard, he could hear his sisters playing upstairs. They had already gotten their schoolwork done for the day. He was miserable and kept giving me an attitude. I finally set down what I was working on and looked at him. We then had a conversation about grit. I explained to him that sometimes, you just have to push through. You have to dig deep and grind it out until you are done with school. “Just finish,” I told him. Our conversation reminded me of what I had read the last few days in Bible reading for my morning time.

boy doing school at the table
Malachi doing his math

Plenty of Hard Times

In the book of Acts, we read about Paul and Barnabas. Paul and Barnabas traveled and taught people about Jesus, that He was indeed the Messiah. They made converts everywhere they went, but they were always careful to fully explain to these converts what it meant to be a follower of Jesus. They told these new believers that anyone who chooses to follow Jesus will go through hard times. Paul says “plenty of hard times.”

After proclaiming the Message in Derbe and establishing a strong core of disciples, they retraced their steps to Lystra, then Iconium, and then Antioch, putting grit in the lives of the disciples, urging them to stick with what they had begun to believe and not quit, making it clear to them that it wouldn’t be easy: “Anyone signing up for the kingdom of God has to go through plenty of hard times. Acts 14:21,22 MSG

Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus; Paul chose Silas and, offered up by their friends to the grace of the Master, went to Syria and Cilicia to build up grit in those congregations. Acts 15:41 MSG

The Cost of Following Jesus

Paul understood better than anyone about the cost of following Jesus. He wanted others to know the truth about what they were choosing to do. Why? So they wouldn’t turn their backs on their faith when times got hard. Paul wanted those converts to develop grit. Webster’s dictionary defines grit as “firmness of mind or spirit: unyielding courage in the face of hardship or danger.”

We have lost this part of teaching in our lives as Christians and in our churches today. We quickly forget that God never promised easy. He simply promised his presence. Jesus himself told His followers to pick up their cross daily and follow him.

Developing Grit

Sometimes, it takes good old-fashioned grit to stick with it. It takes determination to show up when we feel unappreciated, to keep loving people when they have hurt us so deeply, to continue ministering when we have been wronged, to serve in a ministry that doesn’t seem to be “successful” to the world’s standards, to love the spouse who is unloving towards us, to comfort the child who has been pushing us away, to love the unloveable people in our lives, to continue to care for someone who is ungrateful, and on and on the list could go. Most times it’s easier to throw in the towel and move on or start over. Find a new job, choose another church to minister in, let that friendship grow dormant, leave the spouse who has hurt us so deeply.

Paul reminds us that this life is going to be full of difficulties, but Jesus gave us help in the form of the Holy Spirit. He didn’t leave us alone to try to make it through this life on our own.

Standing with Heroes

We get knocked to the ground and kicked while we are down. Life comes at us from all directions, and sometimes it just seems like it’s all too much. Satan whispers to us that it’s all because of following Jesus. If we just walked away from our faith, from the person or people who hurt us or chose to no longer minister to others, the pain would go away.

We have to choose to dig in our feet, stand strong, grit our teeth, and say, “I am not quitting. When we do, we align ourselves with some of faith’s greatest heroes. Paul, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Stephen, Noah, Daniel, John, and of course Jesus. That’s a pretty impressive group of people to stand with!

More Encouragement

If you were encouraged reading this post, I wrote a book that talks a lot about this concept. It is called The Hidden Pain: When You Fear God is No Longer Blessing Your Life. It’s available on Amazon. Click HERE to order a copy today. If you do, be sure to let me know what you thought of it. You can also read my post Stick It Out: 3 Daily Choices to Prevent Quitting.