Hey, Everybody! I was thinking about something early this morning that turned my thoughts toward you. I’d just been going over my memory verses and started reflecting on the whole journey of faith. The ups and downs, the twists and turns. The pain and then sometimes the dullness that scared me twice as much as the pain. Then something would happen and revival would come and back in the saddle I’d go again. His Word would jump back off the page at me and I’d feel fully alive and wonder why I’d doubted. I rewound even further back to the years that I hoped so much that this God I’d been told about was real. I needed Him so badly. I found my heart believing and I deliberately placed my faith in Him. Then I thought about a specific season through which I went from hoping He was real to knowing He was real. Don’t get me wrong. I am still challenged to faith in many other matters and always will be, because “faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen” and “without faith it is impossible to please God.” (Hebrews 11:1,6) But I seldom sit around and wonder if God exists and still speaks and still acts. Like you, I still see as in a mirror darkly and I wonder why some things happen the way they do and how it will all work out and what some things in Scripture really mean. But “I know the One I have believed in.” (2 Timothy 1:12)
We have so many new believers and even a sizable population of seekers in this community. Praise God, we do! We need to question our effectiveness the moment we don’t. So many of them would probably like to ask us how we “know” this God is real. So I ask those of you today to whom this applies to share a season in which you became convinced to the marrow of your bones that this is FOR REAL.
Think it through and be deliberate in your testimony. Please limit your story to one meaty paragraph so that we can read as many as possible. I can hardly wait. Let’s testify, girlfriends.
God became real for me, after I completed the Believing God study and realized the truth that God has been there all along! I was able to take Him at His Word for the first time and so much healing has taken place in my life since then. I have reconciled with the father I had not spoken to in 13 years, I have found my calling in ministering to teen moms and my heart soars each day that I spend with the King. Life is not easy, by any stretch of the imagination, but God is good all the time!
HE is real because of the change in me. There is no other explantion for the profound difference in me. I no longer use profanity to express my thoughts. I look for ways to love people instead of showering them with my sarcasm. I am driven to know HIM and HIS Word. There are so many times that HE has done miracles in my life, but the biggest is me.
Amen! Isn’t cool how God reveals Himself that way! You know it can only be Him.. I love it when that happens!
It is funny, the journey of faith. There have been some times in my past where I’ve seen the Lord show Himself to be TRUE and real to others around me. But for now, I am currently in a season of facing a very deep-seated stronghold and looking to the Lord for deliverance. Just a couple days ago, I realized I have been so terrified to really wholeheartedly seek freedom and commit this battle to the Lord because if He does not come through, there is no longer any hope for me! And I heard my heart crying out in desperate fear, what if He doesn’t??? As you’ve said before, Beth, if He is not bigger than I’ve thought Him to be thus far, I’m as good as dead. I’m only about a week into this journey of believing God afresh, and still somewhat scared out of my mind. I know when I come through this on the other side, I will KNOW that I know that I know that HE is REAL and all that His Word promises to us about freedom and the power of the Spirit at work in us accomplishing more than we could ever ask or imagine is absolutely true. I have never needed Him to be more real than I do presently. Desperate for Him to show Himself strong! Thank you for this post.. I will be checking back throughout the day for testimonies of others who have seen Him be so real.
Much love to you sweet Mama Beth 🙂
I’m so there right now. Praying God will show Himself mighty and strong to set both of us free!
This just made me think of a time a few years ago when I was praying earnestly over and over, ‘Lord, be real to me’, and there was an answer to me sort of suddenly in my begging for this that ‘He is More real than me.’ It was great.
My season of cancer, God became REAL. Speeding up the story to after my 1st surgery, in a hospital room for 6 days with one of my best friends by my side. We both were weary, having just heard the news from my doctor that I would be facing a second surgery, the doctor left and we both cried. At that moment we cried out to God, asking for help. I was asking for my friend to be able to go home. She needed her family and vice versa. I was asking for healing and a reprieve from the hospital. I closed the prayer.
We were both hungry. We both wanted different things to eat but what we wanted was impossible to find in the hospital. But God… she left to find our food and I was left alone w/ my thoughts. In walked the cleaning lady. She cleaned the room, walked out but came right back in. She walked over to me, looked me straight in the eyes, and said this, “God has not forgotten you. He wanted me to tell you that.” She turned around and left. I laid there is awe. In awe of God’s love, care and concern. In awe of our wonderful God who would hear our prayer and immediately send a messenger in the form of the cleaning lady to give me His message. God is REAL! By the way. God also provided the meal I wanted a turkey and mustard sandwich and as I was eating that sandwich, God provided a gorgeous sunset for me to enjoy. God is REAL! This, I know!
I bet that gave you goosebumps to realize how God used the cleaning lady to deliver a message to you. I love it!
AWESOME GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Patty, You are special to me!
Praising HIS Glory!
With Praise and Thanksgiving to the LORD for the Siesta friendships that have been placed,into my heart, where GOD continues to nurture,open and bless each one of us.
So appreciative and thankful for Siestaville +
God is real, and He made himself known to me through the actual, historical person of Jesus Christ. Jesus proved his divinity by many things: miracles, power over nature, healing, rising from the dead. When I prayed to receive Christ into my life, I knew Jesus was real because I began to change and see answers to my prayers. I knew God was real because the scriptures suddenly made sense to me. I knew God was real because He started using me to bring other people into God’s kingdom. He’s made me into a woman who is free to resist her own sin nature and live in the peace, joy, and power of the Holy Spirit. He’s why I can live with flair. http://www.livewithflair.blogspot.com
I think other people perceive me as obtuse. Uncaring. Guarded. In a lot of ways, I suppose I am. But I’m afraid that exterior keeps others from understanding what God’s done for me.
He saved me. Not just in that “deliver me from sin” way (though that was pretty great in and of itself). God saved me from some pretty grim alternative outcomes. A person who shall remain nameless asked me how I could reconcile my relationship with God given some circumstances I lived through. My answer is the same: He didn’t let me drown. He doesn’t let me drown. I’m not implying that my suffering has been greater than any other person’s. But, if I’m willing to go out on a limb and say he didn’t let me drown, then you have to know I was headed in that direction. Fast. In the evening service of our most recent revival meeting, as people were testifying to things that they were thankful for, I silently thanked God for not leaving me in the flood. Left to my own devices, I would’ve checked out–not suicidal. But there are worse ways of checking out that don’t include death. Like when people become unreachable. Like when they don’t respond. Like when you look at them and you know they aren’t there. That’s what God saved me from.
There’s not talking about Him without a deep draw in my heart to thankfulness. So obtuse or not, my heart resonates with the Spirit of a Loving God.
Isaiah 43:2
Wow. Thanks for sharing. I know exactly what you are talking about.
so many times i’ve felt the FOR REALNESS. one time in particular was my nephew’s funeral. he died suddenly. unexpectedly. in his sleep. age 22. no drugs. no alcohol. just didn’t cough and choked and died. my brother, his dad, spoke at the funeral. a dad who lost a son spoke at the funeral. and he wasn’t angry with god. he accepted that there is a reason that he doesn’t understand yet. and he spoke of staying positive. and his son in heaven. i let go of my own anger and bitterness then. and it was beautiful
I praise God for giving me the strength and abilities to get through a devastating disappointment last year. I know that God is real because during my most difficult and painful moments, every time I ask God for strength or peace, I always receive it. I seriously should have been a basket case last year considering the frustrating, maddening, and humiliating circumstances I was facing. But, it’s because of God’s provision in providing His strength and peace that I was able to push through and make the best of my options. In many surprising ways, this past year has been rich in my own personal and professional growth and development and in God’s blessings. There is a lot of power and freedom to be gained in knowing that God can bring good out of painful situations. No matter what happens, He is there for us and can get us through it. That’s how I know God is real.
In 2002 I could hardly walk due to both my knees requiring replacement. Because of my young age I was having a difficult time finding a surgeon. I did find one, and in January 2003 I was in the process of getting everything done on a checklist so I could have my knee surgery. On the list was a mammograph, which I had my yearly mammograph in August of 2002. But the surgeon insisted I have another one and in February of 2003 I was told I had breast cancer–the fastest growing cancer you can have. I had been a Christian all my life but on that day, and for all the days to come, I knew that God was alive and active in my life. God saved my life twice that year — one with the knee replacements and the early detection of the breast cancer. Today, I give God the glory for my ability to walk like everyone else and the fact I am still alive on this earth with my family and I have been cancer free for 7 years! Thank you Jesus.
Judy Baggett
GG2002
How awesome!
If God wasn’t real, then my pit of sin from 15-23 should have killed me. I couldn’t blame it on the Devil. My choices only. He protected me in spite of myself. (Thank you Jesus!)
Tracy L
Richlands,NC
Mmm hmm – I totally get this!
God is real to me because he reached down when I was searching and desperate and grabbed me. He brought me through my husband’s sudden death and spoke to me as I lay in bed crying one night (He said, it’s OK, I’m here). He gave me courage to buy a car all by myself for which I had been terrified to do. He grabbed me again when I was sinking in discouragement and turned me around. I KNOW that I KNOW that He lives!
My husband walked out on me after several agonizing months of trying to convince him to stay, even though he’d been unfaithful, and this following three extremely difficult years of marriage. We married shortly after I came to faith in Jesus and I thought it was an answer to prayer. Sadly, there were more tears than laughter in our relationship, more tension than peace. But when he left, and then married the other woman six months later, there was no doubt in my mind that the God who had saved me was the God who was sustaining me. Day by day, no kidding moment by moment, the Lord was my rock and my ever-present help. He had strategically placed me in a place where I was surrounded by godly friends, even though far from family. I had a job and a ministry to teenagers that gave me purpose and joy. I can honestly say because of Christ, I did not fall prey to the fog of despair or hopelessness, and He kept my heart from becoming bitter. He enabled me to forgive my ex face to face. And He brought beauty from ashes as four years later I met the most wonderful, godly man I’ve ever known. We are about to celebrate 9 years of marriage, and I am overwhelmed at the grace that’s been extended to me by a God who makes us “new creations” and gives us the desires of our heart when we seek Him first. No, there is no doubt in this heart that Jesus Christ is God and that God is real!
Kristen… I sadly am in a season where I can relate to your prior heartache! I too have received such joy, despite the pain, all becuase of JESUS! I adore HIM! I am encouraged by your testimony… Blessings :o)
I know GOD is real. My husband and I tried for 10 years to have children. We finally adopted our 18 month old daughter in May 2009, found our 6 weeks later I was 9 weeks pregnant. We were blessed with another daughter in January of 2010. God is good all the time…
that is just so awesome! God is GOOD!!!
Although I had grown up going to church and believing in the existence of God and the facts about Jesus’ life, I tried to earn God’s approval by being the best Sunday school student, churchgoer, acolyte, and choir member I could possibly be. When I was 15, my eyes were opened (through a choir solo, of all things) to my sin and the impossibility of earning God’s approval by my own actions. At the same time, I saw His readiness to forgive me my sin and gift me with Christ’s own righteousness. That changed everything. Everything! Even though I still did a lot of the same things, they were full of joy and means of receiving God’s love and returning it to Him. No longer were they proud and anxious attempts to prove myself.
If anyone should read this who has also been wearing themselves out trying to earn God’s favor, I sincerely pray the Lord would open your eyes, too, and draw you to Himself.
from Fall of ’09 to Spring of ’10, my husband had to work in So. CA while my pregnant self and 3 kids stayed back in Kansas to sell a house that wasn’t selling in a rough economy. My man was able to come home every 3 weeks in the Fall, 6 weeks at Christmas, 1 week for the birth of our 4th child, and then every 2 weeks in the Spring. We left our house in May still for sale and 2 weeks later a Believing couple who use to be medical missionaries bought our house (and LOVED it) These trials made me wonder where God was. But He was showing off extravagantly through my local body of believers who supported and prayed and loved me (my whole family!!) through this. God sold our home to an incredible couple and we didn’t have to double up on rent and a mortgage more than 1 month. We had a healthy, mostly easy newborn making caring for 4 kids relatively easy on my own. And the Father taught me I am never truly alone, something I’d battled all that year and into our new home here. Even still, I’ll look back and know ONLY GOD can sustain in that kind of stress and situation. ONLY GOD can keep a marriage and family intact. ONLY GOD can watch over the affairs and finances of my household in extreme circumstances. And ONLY GOD can use His Church to love unconditionally and support supernaturally His children in need. I know that pruning season was for my good, though I truly, truly wondered where in the world He was at the time.
Press on Sister, in the Name of Jesus. We love you!
rachel
Fullerton, CA
Thank you for this post! I am a wife of a traveling husband, a mom of 3 little boys, and we live in TN, while our entire family lives in our hometown in CA. I go through some very lonely seasons. For the past two years I have been so lonely and struggling between near depression, and then I will flip flop to almost being over confident. I am learning to face my fears- of my family falling apart because we aren’t together- and entrust my life and my family into God’s hands. I have grown so close to God during this season, and He has become so real in my life. I am grateful to hear that you got through the season! I can’t see the end of this because it’s been this way for a very long time, but I have hope that either something will change, or that if it is God’s will for it to stay the same, that He is teaching me to endure it.
I grew up in the faith, but there were many, many times in which I had my doubts, or didn’t really feel God working in my life. In the year before my daughter was born, my relationship with God had grown tremendously, but I still tended to turn to Him only when I couldn’t work things out on my own. Anyway, while I was pregnant, my husband and I both independently felt that God was laying it on our hearts to leave my job and stay at home with our daughter. I seriously doubted whether God’s idea was a good one, because I just couldn’t see how it would work financially on paper. After a lot of arguing with God but feeling more convicted than ever, we decided to take a leap of faith, and I left my job. To be honest, I STILL wasn’t entirely convinced that I was making the right decision.
But now, one year later, it has been so absolutely incredible to watch the ways in which God has provided for our needs. Not necessarily our wants, but absolutely our NEEDS. There were several occasions in which we weren’t sure that we’d have quite enough to pay this bill or that, when someone from church would call and invite us to dinner…or call asking if my husband would be interested in some weekend work. In every instance, they had NO IDEA of our need, but ended up providing us with exactly what it was that we needed. My husband and I have looked at each other so many times this past year and said, “This is totally a God thing!” It has been so amazing to watch the way that he worked in my life once I finally *let* him.
I know He’s real because if He wasn’t and if what He said didn’t work I’d most likely have given up and would not be alive. I struggled with depression for YEARS and began to think it was just the way I was born and would be something I would have to live with. And then He rescued me. One day at a time through his Word, through faithful friends who allowed God to use them to speak into my life with loving but honest truth about the lies I had believed and what I’d been doing to keep those lies alive and well. He allowed me to not only love the high school sweetheart I’m married to, but actually like him again. I didn’t think that could ever be possible. Quite simply, He gave me hope when I had none. There are seasons when I’ve had to battle like heck not to allow depression to overtake me again. And He wins every time. I don’t know how, but He does. He’s real. He’s really, really real.
I was raised in church that convinced me I could lose my salvation, when I married my husband I went to his church, which taught the once saved always saved salvation, needless to say I fought it until sweet Jesus got hold of me! I was saved in a youth camp at about 9, child faith, then saved times more or I would think. Went through Experiencing God, one morning getting ready to go to ladies retreat, I cried out that their had to be more, Sweet Jesus lead me to know I was saved had been since His first call on my life, lead me to the Bible verse where Jesus washed the diciples feet because they were dirty and Peter wanted his whole body washed, but Jesus told him only his feet needed washing, because he had been out in the world, anyway I’ve never doubted Him saving me or being real again. Praise His Holy Name Belinda, Neely MS
i was first convinced that God was REAL in jr. high. i was going through all the craziness of growing into a woman plus i had no friends and switched schools. as i struggled through this season, i felt God move in my life. He became my anchor and my one true friend. i knew that i would give up all my friends and my comfort zone as long as He was by my side. and He always is. now 15 years later, i can still look back with fondness at those hard changes in my young life because that’s where i fell in love with Jesus!
March 24, 2005 I was raised in a churchly family: went to church, confirmed, etc. But as I matured and moved on with my life – doubts took over my mind and I ventured away from God. As a young adult, God’s plan was not in the forefront of my mind. But as I matured, married and started a family; thoughts of God’s intentions became something that I focused on daily. I was fortunate enough to be teaching with a very Godly woman who would answer my questions and lived a very spiritual life. She became (and still is) my spiritual mentor. We read “The Purpose Driven Life” together and she introduced me to my first Beth Moore study “A Women’s Heart – God’s Dwelling Place” and that spoke volumes to me. At this point I began seeking my personal relationship with God. An early March trip to Rapid City to see Living Proof Live also showed me further the type of life I wanted to lead and the many women that lived to pursue God’s love fro them. The morning of March 24th 2005 – I suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm while scooping snow. It is only through the grace of God that I survived that medical trauma, but through it all I had a peace inside of me that I knew God had a plan for my life and that I would be OK. To this day 6 yrs later, I am still searching for God’s purpose for my life. I praise him that I am alive and able to raise my two sons to be good men and know that he has big things in store for me. I have to have patience because I know it will all be shown to me in God’s perfect timing.
I think each season of our lives brings slightly (or vastly) different “jobs.” I also have two boys and for years wanted to know what purpose God had for me, what I should do, but have come to realize that raising our children to love God and His Word is a monumental task…and we can even bring their friends along for the ride. As each year passes, continue to ask if there is something different God is calling you to do outside your home while you continue your calling inside your home, but if there is no definitive answer, rest in knowing you may be doing precisely what He’s called you to for this season!
The season in my life when I really knew God was for REAL was when I was in College. I had been dating a boy from a very different religion/belief system than my own and we were pretty serious. I had been studying and praying but getting so frustrated. My faith was in a dark place and I was to the point of sitting in church or praying and feeling nothing…just numb…which scared me to death! I prayed for God to just hold on to me. I wanted my prayers answered a certain way (so I could be with this guy forever) but the Lord said “No” to that relationship and yet He said “Yes” to my faith. He held on to me and guided me through a difficult break-up. He also lead me to the most wonderful guy who later became my husband. We will soon celebrate our 22nd wedding anniversary and are still like 2 kids dating in College! I KNOW God is REAL…my faith grew tremendously during those quiet moments He and I wrestled my questions, desires and heartbreak. He held onto me and I clung to Him. My faith has been put to the test many more times over the years and I’ve dealt with loss, sadness and tragedy since then but I know God is alive, active, and pursuing me and I will not let go of Him just as sure as He will continue to hold on to me.
I’m hard-pressed to think of a time when I didn’t believe God was real. I always figured any doubts were my own problem. Over the last couple of years, though, one of my children began questioning–not God’s existence, but His relevance. Her doubts scared me in a way my own never had. Through so many tears, sleepless nights and outright fits over her poor choices, I cried out to the Almighty. As the veneer of my ‘comfortable faith’ wore off, I began to see how my sometimes paltry prayer life also seemed to question God’s relevance. Oh, my. Beth, this trial has sparked my prayer life in a way that nothing else ever has–even my own personal trials. I don’t know if anything will drive you to your knees faster than the knowledge that your child is in trouble. For the first time, I understood what believing God was all about–deliberately choosing Him and claiming His promises in Scripture even when circumstances scream hopelessness, accompanied by very specific prayer. And guess what? My God answered my pleas in very specific ways. Those intercessions continue, and I have been emboldened to pray with faith about so many more things, because I have seen Him at work. Yes, I always ‘believed’ He was real, but now I KNOW He is real!!!
“I will proclaim the name of the LORD. Oh, praise the greatness of our God!” –Deuteronomy 32:3
In 2006, I conceieved triplets after years of miscarriages and fertility treatments. At 13 1/2 weeks one of their water broke, then at 20 weeks another one’s broke. I gave birth at 27 weeks to a 1lb 1/2oz Jackson,1lb. 10oz Isaac and a 2 lb 4oz Abigail. I was on bed rest pretty much through the entire pregnancy and three of those weeks were in the hospital with daily monitoring. The doctors wouldn’t talk to me about Jack living and not really a Isaac either…in fact they only monitored Abby. In those days, even though I couldn’t focus my brain, all I did was read His Word and pray pray pray. Somehow He brought me through with that peace the indeed surpasses all understanding. We lost Jack a miraculous 36 hours after he was born (yes, he survived from 13 1/2 weeks). 5 days after burying Jack in a tiny casket, we were told Isaac would not live either. That night my husband and I pleaded for Jack to be our ram as God had provided for Abraham and God lovingly accepted Jack. Today Isaac lives up to his name of laughter daily with vitality and spunky health. Abby is a dynamite of personality and health. Is God real? Ask any NICU nurse that took care of my babies…YES HE IS REAL. Does my heart still ache and fear? Yes, but I am learning to let go, break free and BELIEVE over and over!
After nine months of marriage, my husband left me. I was alone and ashamed. I questioned God and asked multiple times if he was there and if He would save me from my humiliation. One particularly hard day, a friend sent me this scripture.
“Do not be afraid; you will not be put to shame. Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated. You will forget the shame of your youth and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood. For your Maker is your husband — the LORD Almighty is his name — the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth. The LORD will call you back as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit — a wife who married young, only to be rejected,” says your God.”
– Isaiah 54:4-6
It wasn’t that day or that month, but God brought my husband home to me – and we are still hanging on.
Andrea… that is so encouraging! My husband left me after 8 years of marriage and is in-love with another woman. The coolest thing is how loved I feel and the joy I have because it can only be from Jesus. God is so big and He can do anything! I pray my story will turn out like yours. Keep the faith!
Melissa, you and Andrea’s stories touch my heart deeply. I remember that feeling all too well! But unlike you, I ran in the opposite direction of Christ at the time. After 3 divorces, I finally turned back to God and fell in love with Jesus Christ! The story of the Samaritan woman in the Bible had alot to do with it. Jesus spoke to me through that story and my life hasn’t been the same sense!
Badly, badly wounded by someone I trusted… disillusioned, resentful and doubting myself and all I’d felt was so solid in my life, I had no one else to turn to but my God. He was my comfort, my guidance, my safe refuge. As I fled to His word, He whispered into my heart just what I needed to make it through the next hours or days. He gathered up all the shattered little pieces of me and began to rebuild me into someone I had not been before. I’d believed God as a girl and trusted my life to Jesus but I’d never needed Him like I did in that desperate season. And He came through in ways I could never have imagined. Would I want to go through that time again? No, but I wouldn’t trade anything for the resulting closeness with my Jesus! I know that I know that I know how REAL He is because of how He cares for me, how He’s healed my brokenness.
God has been a part of my life forever. I grew up with parents that were missionaries, but their first ministry was to us. We learned to pray, had family devotions, and learned Bible verses from a young age. It truly became MY faith as I went through life and needed the Lord, and every time He has been here. Never more apparent than when our last child was born 2 years ago with a health condition. I saw the Lord work in him, sustaining and keeping him. My son will deal with his health issue his whole life, but God has been so present. Caring for us, loving us, filling us with His strength. Granting joy and sweetness to my boy as he copes.
Sometimes it’s through pain and hardship that God shows himself the most. We can realize through it, that He is worthy of our praise, our trust and our Love.
2 years ago my daughter (who is not a believer) and her 2 babies were in a car accident, the babies were fine but my daughter was in very bad condition. SHe was mediflighted out. The paramedic told me I should hurry to the ER if I wanted to see her alive. My church & family were praying. She recovered much better than they expected. A few months later, I was in a building where I worked over 8 years ago to take care of some business, I ran into someone I used to work with there. She told me that the Lord had laid on her heart to pray for my family a few months before. She told me it came over her while in church on the sunday before christmas and didn’t let up for several days. My daughter had the wreck on her way to church that very sunday and got out of ICU several days later. My daughter asked me why would God tell someone who doesn’t even know me and you haven’t seen in years to pray for me? I said because He loves you so much. Why did I run into this woman in a huge place of business? So He could strengthen my Faith. My daughter has recovered amazingly. I still pray that she will turn her heart completely to God.
Beth..
You must have heard from God about my questions last night and through the early hours of the morning.
I’m thankful to hear that there are days that you still struggle. Satan is such a jerk! Thank you for posting. It gives me encouragement.
I grew up in church all of my life, but only in college did I really start pursuing God. After a few months of intense Bible reading, I began to fall head over heels in love with the Lord. I openly gave my life to Him and realized that I may have not even been a Christian before that point. The changes in my life were amazing. Before I had been hard and cold and very edgy. Suddenly, I was happy and content and at peace. Before, I had been terrified of dying. Now, it no longer bothers me. Before, I had been living a good Christian life because I felt that I had to, and I was miserable. Now, I’m living a good Christian life because I want to and I love Jesus and I’m joyful. God is SOOOOOO GOOD and definitely REAL!
I know He is real because of the Peace in the middle of the chaos. I have been in a terrible pit of sin, even as a believer, even as one saved and assured of eternal life, but I found myself eating with pigs, wishing I could even be a servant in my Father’s house. I asked my Shepherd to come and get me, and boy did He ever. He broke both of my legs, but He carried me home. Since then, I spend every morning in prayer and bible study. The days I don’t start in prayer don’t seem to be worth the time it takes to pass them. I have seen His providence and protection, His complete reorientation of my life, so many times, in so many ways that are very personal to me, and so I’m afraid might not translate well in a blog, but I know, I know, I know, I know in my heart and soul and mind that It is my God working out His will in and on me. The greatest thing He gives me daily is His Peace, and the assurance of His Love and Presence. The sensation of these things is beyond language, but since I have experienced them, I know I’m a fool anytime I doubt Him. I’ve seen Him do so much….real things….real answers to prayer, and yes, lots of times the answer was NO, but only because He had something so much better in store…..I have no reason to doubt. And that is my mainstay when the waters get rough. He has been my all in all so many times before, why on earth would I wonder if He’s gonna be this time? I’m loved. I’m saved. I faltered and fell and still I’m loved and He saves me every single day, and His Peace passes all understanding. There aren’t words….
God proves He is real in so many ways, here’s a quick example, hope it’s not too trivial:
The other day I was being obedient in doing something I did not want to do. Waiting for a phone call, I asked God to please have the people call me so we could be done. A FEW SECONDS later, the phone rang as I had hoped.
Right after that I figured I just check – I did the State Farm jingle. “With a new boyfriend!” Nothing. Rats.
God = real. SF ads = not real.
Michele,
As a State Farm agent, if I could get a new boyfriend for you I would. ;0
haha Thanks Jill! I should have clarified – no offense against State Farm – I have SF home/auto insurance and they are great! And I love those commercials – “Change me back!” hahahahaha But I can’t get it to work. Not even the Giant stuffed Panda bear. hahaha 🙂
I totally just laughed out loud!
Oh, Beth. I was marveling over this very thing just last week. I know (I apologize fervently) that this is more than one paragraph, but it’s hard to cut it down, so just skim real fast, okay? 🙂
“I nearly shouted it out right there in the coffee shop. Settling in with fresh coffee (buttered toffee) and a still-warm muffin (lemon poppy seed), I’d turned to Romans where Paul, that ardent follower of Christ, was speaking.
“Therefore,” he’d said, “having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.”
I stopped. “This grace in which we now stand.” The ancient words thrummed with power, touching some place deep within.
“This grace in which I now stand.”
Wasn’t I the girl who’d labored for years, unsure of her salvation? Wasn’t I the one who’d lain awake many nights, terrified that I’d committed the unpardonable sin? Wasn’t it me who’d seen Him as an angry, demanding Father, impossible to please?
Hadn’t this perfectionist despaired of meeting the high and holy standards of a perfect God? And hadn’t I agonized for most of my life, wanting desperately to hear His voice, but seldom knowing for bone-deep sure…? Yes! Oh, yes.
How was it that He’d brought me to this place of sweet communion? How had such a fearful, doubting sheep learned to hear and know His voice? How could this natural complainer learn to find joy, even in the midst of hard things? How…all this grace?
“Hallelujah!” I wanted to shout from my round corner table. “It’s Jesus! Through Him and Him alone…”
If you have time to read the last part of the post, it’s here: http://momof4braves.blogspot.com/2011/03/grace-in-which-i-stand.html#links
Praising Him and shouting Hallelujah! If He can do it for me, He can sure as shootin’ do it for you!
Rhonda
I don’t even seen any other posts yet – usually that helps to kick start my brain. I actually prayed, “Lord, do you want me to share?” I have several milestones as I have wrestled with the dark doubt a lot. Somehow… a seed of that ugly stuff slipped through a crack in my youth and until last summer, has sprouted it’s death in my heart and mind.
It was hard to admit to people i struggled with doubting God’s realness. I am very fervent in my faith and have HIGHS and am very open about my Passion for Him My lows are just as low…. or have been. Until He allowed me to walk around a corner last summer when I came face to face with the Big ugly Doubt Monster. I felt the anger, the frustration, the embarrassment rise up… and i literally heard myself say, “I would like to just throw the towel in!”… What!? My Faith!?… it’s not working!!
So… I spoke it … very unwillingly to a wise counselor… and asked, “where is God in this…??”
God, in His amazing God-like-way… turned that question over: God IS IN THIS with me. He is not over in the corner… he is not NONE-existant: He is IN my darkness with me… to illuminate the darkness… and to bring me FREEDOM. When I thought I was all alone, wrestling in the messy pit… He showed me. “I am Here in it with You. You are not alone”
He dispelled that LIE! He destroyed that Lie, that root, that seed. 🙂 I am a NEW PERSON!! Yeah!!!
I have battled fear, insecurity and anxiety in my life for almost as long as I can remember. As an adult, these issues have taken me down some dark and difficult paths – including panic attacks and depression. But I KNOW God is real and is with me because I can distinctly remember many times when I sat down to pray or read His Word, begging Him to show up and give me what I needed for just THAT day. And He did it. In fact, He continues to do it over and over again! Without any hype or fanfare, He has a mysterious way of moving into my heart and mind and calming my spirit. He gives peace when it’s the last thing I “should” be feeling, considering the circumstances. And He leads me to the places in His Word that tend to my battle-weary soul … and He gently guides me to the truths that are slowly setting this captive free. Oh, how I love Him and how I praise His trustworthy Name!
I ABSOLUTELY “KNOW” God is real!!! He witnesses to my spirit that he is there. Praise God there is NO doubts!!
Was it one season for you Beth, that God did something in your life and you’ve never looked back since? God has done great work in my life but I sometimes feel like I’m just one of His people wandering in the desert, watching the food fall from the sky and as soon as it stops, I doubt. I used to think, Those people were so dumb! They actually saw all of these amazing miracles performed right in front of their eyes and they still doubt their God! How can that be? Well, now I can see how my faith is sometimes just as week…Not in doubting that God exists, but just not understanding who He is. So I’m not sure if my faith has penetrated down to the marrow of my bones, and that scares me. I long for it to get that deep, but what in my life will have to happen for it to get there?
It was indeed a season, Faith, but it was a long season. In case I was not clear, I already believed passionately for many years prior but after God literally transformed me into a different person and set a long-term captive free, and made me promises I saw Him keep, and became bigger than anyone had ever taught me that He was, Girlfriend, I KNEW. Only God could have done what God did.
Thank you so much for your response. It is encouraging… I guess I’m in the transformation process! I know I have a lot of chains that still need to be broken but I also know that He has broken many already. I also should say thank you to you for helping in that process. By your faithfulness in your own walk with God, you have touched mine. One step at a time, one day at a time, and the freedom I long for in Christ becomes closer and closer. If God did that for you I have to believe He will do it for me to. Thank you again for your willingness to be used.
Faith- I know you will get there. I have also felt that way at times myself so you are not alone. God will strengthen your faith in amazing ways. You don’t have to try harder or work harder. He loves you for who you are and not what you do. I say that to encourage you that it will get into your very soul. It is a process of growing and that takes some time for sure!! Never give up and always keep your chin up. If you are willing He will do it!!!! This Scripture helped me so much when I went through a season of struggling and it still brings me comfort today.
2 Corinthians 8:12
For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have.
I am praying for you!!
Your sister in Christ,
Erin
Thanks Erin… I appreciate your prayers and your encouragement. They were really needed. 🙂
The doctors told me that I wouldn’t be able to have children, or if I did, I would have to endure lots and lots of fertility treatments. After marrying my husband at the age of 31 (another testimony in itself), we had some godly men and women pray over us concerning another issue, but one of the women sensed God telling her that I needed prayer for my ovaries to be healed (she had no knowledge of my condition). So she prayed. A few weeks later another woman prayed for the same thing–and believed God told her I would be pregnant by the end of the year. And that was just two months away!
As God would have it, he allowed me to get pregnant–get this–on the night of December 31st! God is VERY REAL and even has a hilarious sense of humor! My husband and I now have two beautiful babies and are thankful each day that God chose to bless us in this particular way at the particular time that He did.
Prayers and blessings,
Rebecca
I know God is real because time and time again He lets me know that He not only KNOWS the details of my life, but He CARES! for example: I was praying recently, “God, I NEED wisdom!!”. it was more than just words, it was a real crying out of my heart to my Father. So, I finished praying, dried my tears and picked up a precious little book I was reading at the time called The Red Sea Rules. The first words i read were, “Wisdom is this…”. I have to say, I was completely blown away by such a blatant and personal answer to my cry to my Abba Father. It was like He was there with me (well, I guess because He is ALWAYS with me) and we were sitting across the kitchen table from one another, having coffee as I cried and told Him of my woes. He is such a good, and kind and loving Father!
Jackie from MO
I have “coffee with Jesus” too! 🙂
When I was going through a very difficult time with my teaching job, and my depression was mounting, I noticed that God began giving me songs in the night! Often I would wake up with a praise song lifting up my faltering faith. Only God knew what I needed most.
1)March 19th marked the 10 year anniversary of my first baby boy, Connor going to be with Jesus. He was stillborn and I was only 19. There was no hope except the precious arms of my Lord in those days. I am forever thankful to my Lord for the intimacy He gifted me with Himself, through the birth of my baby boy. I can’t wait to dance and praise before the throne with my baby.
2)My amazing, almighty God has called me on a crazy journey of praying for reconcilliation in a marriage I put the final death sentence on over 6 years ago. I never wanted to pray for this, but in this journey and grace that caused obedience, I am now praying for that miracle. And know that it’s on it’s way. He is soooo real, so faithful. My life is meaningless without Him.
My daughter and I decided to revisit Believing God this winter,even though she had just had baby number three, (the oldest is four….so her days are very full). We were long distance bible study partners but we found the phone faithful and God even more so! We believed Him for small things like lost keys and a screw caught up in the mechanics of their corn stove and big things like my shopping addiction. We continue to believe Him and we are now on week two of Breaking Free and she has three friends meeting with her as they study. What I have learned in this is that God’s Word spoken aloud is knock your socks off powerful, as well as tender as a lullaby…and all at the same time.
Joel, our student, who turned 12 years old on February 13.
He has Ulcerative Colitis and got a virus at the end of November, which ended him up in the hospital with complete kidney failure. He went on dialysis. In the hospital he contracted swine flu and was put on a ventilator in the ICU. He came through it, with flying colours. At the end of February it looked as though he was getting better, when we saw him after school, jumping and laughing and hoping to soon return back to classes. But then there was the major heart attack at the beginning of March…
…but he survived the heart attack, the same day asking his mom if he could go home, and hasn’t needed dialysis since.
It doesn’t make sense. But nothing else makes sense.
Our God is HEALER.
His parents’ faith proves it.
Ultimate Orphan
Let me introduce myself
And who I say I am
I didn’t come from parents
Though; I created beast and man
There is no point of reference
Of the things I do, or done
There is no other like me
Meaning; I am the only one
The only one to know you
And the one who always care
The one who always loves you
And of everything I share
I allow; free choice and thinking
And life examples do I send
I said I’m like a brother
Who’s much closer than a friend
You live here on my planet
and use all that I have made
and for all that you are doing
I’ve a system so you’re paid
I see things that you can not
I know beginning till the end
I know what’s put inside you
And why you’re the one I send
So let me introduce myself
I’m known as God above
And everything that is done for you
Is done from source of love
I am the only: here forever
(but not the same for you….)
You shall die of consequence
Of all you say and do
It is known: I’m the one who gives
And the one who takes away
I can save a nation
Or destroy it all one day
What is it youre fearing-
Is it me; or my son’s name?
But reject me when I need you
(in reverse; I’ll do the same)
I’ll help you find a reason-
Just hear all that I say,
To do’s your choice and option
….but I take that too one day
Trade for something better?
Well that’s for you to know…..
But everything’s set before you
In the form of words and show
I am a win/win proposition-
If you could see things like I see
And let me be more human
You’d love people…. just like me
No, I did not come from parents
It’s love that is my course
And to tolerate humanity;
I’m the one and only source
All to hear the words one day
That can’t come from beast or tree:
“I don’t know what love is?…..”
and you want to learn from me
Kaptain Obvious
When my husband came home one day and said he didn’t want to be married anymore, I was devastated and empty and I had a void inside of me that is beyond words. But I clearly heard God tell me that I was to love my husband. With what? And why? And for goodness sake how? But over the next several months my ONLY SINGLE SOLITARY SOURCE of LOVE and POWER were Jesus Christ. There is nothing easy loving someone who has betrayed you. It makes no logical sense and it is COUNTER to EVERYTHING in our world. I deserve better. I didn’t do anything to deserve this. How dare he? But what won was a deep unselfish love that had only one source – my Savior. And I loved him. And today – just over 6 years later, he is still my husband but now we are in Christ’s family together and leading worship praising our God side by side with hands held high. He is our marvelous hope. He was there all along.
Praise You, Jesus!!
I am convinced even more when….He shows me things in my life BEFORE they happen….literally preparing me for situations that I couldn’t go through without Him. I believe in Him all the way to my marrow….but it is renewed everytime this happens to me!! Thank you Lord!!
After 12 years of struggling and wresting with infertility, we kneeled and prayed on New Years Eve, “Lord, even if we never become parents – You are our God and we will serve you”. Two days later an adoption agency with a waiting list of families contacted us, asking if we would be interested in adopting a baby. The Director after seeking God could not get us off of her heart – not knowing if we would even be interested. Two months later, our son was placed in our ams. ONLY God my friends…, ONLY God!!
Lisa, BIG HEARTFELT HUG TO YOU!!!!
This describes the seasons that I endured this past year. God pointed me and my husband in a direction and we went both feet jumping. After 4 months, absolute rejection. We had moved two states away and then were rejected…by God’s people. After it being so clear and seeing God move in young adults lives we were rejected and I really questioned God and pulled away. I doubted and wondered where that “God is so real” feeling went. God never leaves you…and if you search, He will prove Himself to you again! 4 months later, my husband and I found a wonderful church that was in the process of finding a youth pastor. We didn’t know that when we visited – but God did! Now, with that feeling “God is so real!!” we are faithfully serving as a couple – my husband as the Youth Pastor and I as the Sports Director and also alongside my husband with those precious young adults! God is so good…and within a year hs proven himself twice – who am I that God would prove Himself to me? Thank you Lord!!
And we feel blessed to have you two, too, Beth!
My time came when I went through a season of such anxiety and panic I did not know if I would make it without going crazy!! It would last for weeks at a time. It was the darkest time of my whole life! There were many things God needed to heal in my mind and emotions from the past and He started working in me a little at a time. I could not even see it at first. That started about 7 years ago or so and now I still get overwhelmed by how He has healed and helped me in my thinking and emotions. He was always by my side and He even helped me to see how He was there in certain situations!! There are some days that the enemy tries to use those old things to get to me but my God has taught me so much and is faithful to me and I love Him so!!! Praise Jesus for His tenderness and love!!!!
I left home at age 18 to attend bible school. While I was there I began studying the scriptures on my own for the first time. I was raised in a very religious home, but I had never pursued scriptural understanding for myself until then. As I read through the gospels I discovered FOR REAL who Jesus Christ was and who He is now, and he became very, very real to me. I felt then the Holy Spirit take up residence inside of me, and that feeling of never being alone has never left me. I will never leave you nor forsake you, He said to me. He is so very real to me, because He made Himself real to me. When I sought Him, I found Him, and He filled my whole heart. Praise His Name!!!!!!!
Without a doubt, I know that God is for real because I am not the same woman I was when I starting following Christ. He took a self-centered, pit dwelling idiot and turned me into a woman who wants nothing more than to walk with Him and be used for His glory. Clearly, I still have many faults and will have, until He calls me Home. But, because of His loving grace, I am not the same woman I was. He is for real, even when we aren’t!
Thank you…. you have spoken my heart exactly!