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.
I knew God was real when I began to examine the circumstances around Jesus’ death, Resurrection, and ascension. So many facts convinced me Jesus had to be God: over five-hundred separate people saw Him in the flesh after His Resurrection, non-Christian historians like Josephus wrote about His Resurrection, His disciples suddenly became bold and were almost all killed as martyrs, the list goes on. Once I realized Jesus really did come, die, and rise again, I realized that God was real and everything in the Bible was true.
Sixteen years agp I accepted Christ as my Savior. I had lived as an agnostic on a good day and believing there was no God on other days. When I was saved, I had VERY little faith. I told God He would have to prove to me He was real. And, did He ever – by having the Bible jump off the page speaking directly to me and answering prayer reguests that were very specific. I love God’s promise in Jeremiah 29:13-14 “You will search for Me and find Me when you search for Me with ALL your heart. I WILL BE FOUND BY YOU.!” God’s awesome promise to all who seek to know Him. You will find Him very faithful.
I had my “FOR REAL” moment 5 1/2 years ago when my husband was killed in a car accident. I was 28 and we had celebrated the birth of our first child just 6 months earlier. As tremendous as the pain of sudden loss was, God’s Grace was bigger, wider, and more intense than I had ever felt it before. Prior to this “Divine Interruption” (doing Priscilla Shirer’s study on Jonah right now!), I had questioned my faith heaviliy, mainly b/c it was based on my performance, not God’s Grace. And when I wasn’t performing very well (umm, MOST of the time) I doubted God’s Presence in my life, so my worry and guilt would propel me to DO more for Him, get more stressed and fail some more…you get the picture, it was vicious cycle. All that changed the instant I received that dreaded phone call. In an instant I felt how His Love can fill you in the darkest moments. I truly experienced the “Peace that passes all understanding.” Despite my previous questioning and doubt, and all my failures at loving Him well, His incredible Love and Peace was portioned out to me in amazingly real ways. His response wasn’t dependent on how much I had trusted him before, or on how “good” a Christian I had been – Hallelujah! By His Grace, and Grace alone, I was freed from having to perform to feel like He was real in my life. Praise HIM! I walked in a new-found freedom during the most difficult days of my life. HE IS SO GOOD, no matter what we say, or do, or DOUBT!
allison, thank you so much for sharing this. i needed to be reminded.
I had been suffering from random panic/anxiety attacks for several years. We were coming to the close of 2009 and I was experiencing things that I had no control over. I felt like my mind and body were betraying me and wondering where God was. Then one morning I knew that I knew that I knew. He spoke directly to my heart regarding the disobedience I had been living in and revival took place that day in my parent’s kitchen. He had used me when I thought I was un-usable. He has healed places in my heart and mind that I thought might be beyond healing. He has been GOOD! Every time I open God’s Word He shows up. He reminds me frequently that I am not alone…He is always with me. He is real. His love is real. His provision is real. His promises are real and He fulfills them. Our God is REAL!
from one Becky to anther…
I’ve been there. Panic/anxiety attacks that stuff stinks, and like you, I found Him to be real, and Him to deliver me from it.
PRAISE HIS NAME !
The LORD is For Real, this I know because he has allowed me to walk through a storm that has changed my soul.
My marriage for the first 2 years was full of doubt and satan’s lies. My husband doubted my love and had trust issues. I believed all of satan’s lies concerning it. I was divorced and that brought a lot of baggage. At the end of the second year, I was desperate and broken down completely…. After I went to counseling, got a good grip on bible study, and joined the Siesta Memory Verse Team, the scales began to fall from my eyes and satan’s grip was being destroyed.
I would walk through the house and pray scripture over it and over my husband from my Praying God’s Word Devotional (by Beth) and my scripture spiral. If something was wrong I was on the floor in the bathroom praying on my knees. My friend said to pray for a boundary around our marriage and from that point forward “For Real” changes started to happen. Beth and Keith’s marriage was a constant reminder to me to keep going for just the sake of going. We are now going strong and every day is a miracle. I had given up in marriage before and it would have been easy to do again, but God let me know I was called to be more. He reminded me of my commitment to HIM through my marriage.
Psalm 18 The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
I have a daughter who will soon be 15 years old. When Ellie was very young, she was extremely shy and wouldn’t talk at all to some people and/or in certain situations. At the age of 4 she was diagnosed with a very rare anxiety known as selective mutism. The places we saw this the most was in pre-school, school, new situations, around new people. She had a handful of people she would talk to. We are a military family and move often, so the new situations increased. On her second day of 1st grade, I cried out to God, “What am I going to do? How can she go through another year of school not speaking to her teacher?” He told me, ” She was mine before she was yours and I will take care of her.” A few weeks later, a new school psychologist came to that school who specialized in selective mutism! She helped Ellie a great deal, but Ellie never spoke to her teacher that year, but spoke to some students and did her work. We moved again and it took until 4th grade, but that year, around Christmas, she spoke to her teacher. By the way, that teacher? Had selective mutism as a child herself! We have continued to see God put teachers in Ellie’s life who only want to help her with this anxiety. She is now in 9th grade and just last week participated in Oral Interpretation of Scripture Competition and said the first chapter of Ruth for 3 judges. God is REAL and so GOOD!
What an wonderful testimony of an Awesome God! I’m rejoicing with you.
Thank You. I am so thankful when I can share this story and I know my daughter will be able to use it as part of an amazing testimony someday.
While I was raised in church and believed in God, little in my life gave evidence to it. As time went by I went to church less and less until I almost never went, except for Easter and Christmas! Around seven years ago now, I felt an overwhelming desire to find a new church to attend and prayed that God would lead me to one. There was a small ‘non denominational’ church near my daughters elementary school that I sensed God ‘telling’ me was the one. In no time, I fell in love with Jesus Christ and poured myself into the Word!! I joined a small group and started going to Bible study (Breaking Free) and life was great…until my husband was diagnosed with cancer five months later! During those six months of treatment, I pressed into God and my faith grew. Treatment was a success and he was declared cancer free. Soon afterward,I made a comment in my small group that I wonder what would’ve happened had my husband passed away from cancer…is my faith so strong because He healed him or would it be anyway. I got my answer a few days later when my father passed away unexpectedly from a heart attack!! The Lord became SO real for me during this time. He ministered to me with the help of my new church, His Word and the ‘peace that passes understanding’! Who but a loving,REAL God would make sure I was in a church and in His Word AND be a part of a loving small group , before He knew I would need it?
I became a believer and follower of Jesus Christ at the age of 21. I instantly became consumed with knowing more “about” him through His Word. I grew as a Christian, even as I suffered through the heartache of infertility and other hurtful things. But it wasn’t until I suffered a severed relationship that God REALLY transformed my whole heart into one that BELIEVED. And He used two particular verses of Scripture to do that…Isaiah 43:10-13 really pierced my soul with the idea of not just knowing him but trusting Him. But Isaiah 54:10 heals my heart everyday! “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my convenant of peace be removed,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you. I am amazed how when others reject me, when the world around me comes tumbling down, My Jesus loves me regardless!!! Not only that but he gives me an undescribable peace to prove His unfailing love. Those verses mean so much to my soul they are painted over two of the main doors in my home as constant reminders.
May your journey be blessed with belief!!
Oh sweet girls-
It’s been a while since I have been on here, but there is no greater way for us to glorify God than to share the “realness” of Him in our lives!
Last summer our family went through a season of trial and refining. It started out with a desperate call from my sister asking me to take her boys…her life was crumbling…she was in a bad realationship…addicted to pain meds and she couldn’t take care of herself, let alone her boys. And I had been praying for them for a while, and God kept asking me who was going to step up and do something for the boys….if not you Andrea-then who? How do you say “no” to any of that. As overwhelming as it was to think of a household of 5 children, we knew God was calling us to say YES LORD! The day after the kids and I drove the two hours to pick up the boys we got a paniced phone call from my mother-in-law that our beloved “Dad” had had a pretty massive stroke. To say we felt pressed from all sides was an understatement. My husbands family lives about 12 hours away, so we knew it would be no simple task to pack up and head there….and we didn’t. God had filled our plate at home and was not asking us to go. But about three weeks after Ted’s stroke, we received a phone call that said we needed to get to Denver, that the doctors were concerned about the massive swelling on the brain, and were needing to do surgery, but that Ted was simply too weak to survive a surgery. Our hearts were broken. We called my mother to come and stay with the children, and drove through the night to make it to Denver. When we got there, Ted was very incoherant, and it was tough to see him there so lifeless. And after hours of conversations with doctors, we made the heart-wrenching decision to continue on in hospice care, as the damage to his brain was too extensive. The next morning when Jason and I got to the hospital God blessed us with our beloved Ted…he was so crystal clear and present, a huge change from the day before. He couldn’t speak and was trying so hard to communicate with us. He kept asking about our kids. That afternoon Jason and I said “Good-bye” to our beloved Ted for the last time, and nothing could have prepared me to tell our children that Grandpa wasn’t going to make it. They moved Ted back to a facility closer to home in Montana, where he continued in hospice care for another three weeks before he went Home to Jesus.
God had everything about last summer planned out….he knew we needed the distraction of two extra children…all of us did…I look back at the ways the Lord blessed us. My children had just spent 10 days with Grandpa in Montana, he had brought them home to Minnesota, spent a day doing one last project with his son, had a fabulous dinner with us and headed home on Thursday morning. He had his stroke that Saturday….but God loved us enough to give us those last memories with Ted, and we are eternally greatful that we have a God that LOVES US SO MUCH! I know without a shadow of a doubt that He is real…because during that time He was our portion…our only reason to get from one day to the next. Without Him…we would have been broken beyond measure without an ounce of Hope. I rejoice in the day when we will see Jesus and Ted again!
In Him,
Andrea
Several years ago I went through a tremendous trial of faith. I came to a crossroads – either pull myself together and figure out this whole “God thing” or walk away forever. (Since I had been raised to be a ‘good, church-goin’ girl’ I didn’t have the nerve to walk away.)God wasn’t real for me, I just went through the motions because that’s what I had been taught to do. My marriage was on the brink of divorce due to sin in my life, my children were in turmoil, I was a MESS. But I couldn’t walk away – from my marriage, my family nor from God. Something held me there. SomeONE held me there. God knew me completely, every failure, every weakness, every doubt, fear, victimization, every dark place in me. Something began to click in me. Scripture began to open up to me in a light I had never seen – it was as if it was written just for me. I got to a point where I was completely broken with God (and that was a GOOD broken!) and He showed up to heal, restore and redeem me in a way I can almost hardly describe. My screen name is “Redeemed” because that is exactly what He did for me – He bought me back from nothingness, from ‘going through the motions’ to the reality that He is, He loves and He will come back for me.
I grew up in the church, but had heavily relied on my parents’ faith for most of my life. I had gone through the AWANA memorization club from age 5 all the way through high school. Because of different hardships in high school, I felt abandoned by God. I even went to a Christian college, but left with a cynical attitude toward the Church.I signed up for a year long mission program after college graduation because I enjoyed serving people, but also because I didn’t know what else to do with my life. The second week into the training for this program, we were required to participate in a 48 hour silent retreat with nothing but a pen, a journal, and a Bible. With all of the distractions removed and no one around to blame, I had no more excuses–nothing left to hide behind. This is the first time in my life I can say I truly met Jesus, and finally had a heart knowledge of his love for me (not just a ‘head knowledge’). Salvation through his sacrifice was for me! There have been hardships since then, but my faith is grounded on the Solid Rock because Jesus met me in silence.
This is something I myself need to hear from you ladies that have walked before me.I have been married for 19 years and my husband is in a rehab ,for like, I cant even count how many times.I doubt God. I doubt my husband. I doubt myself. MY mind is telling me to run.I feel God would want me to stay in the marriage. I am scared.I do not know who to listen to. I can’t tell where God is speaking and where I am going.I pray. go to church. I listen. I get nothing. I feel frozen,my emotions, my faith.it’s fear. I know it is. PLease pray for me. I will read these testimonies. Thank-you BETH.
Praying for you.
I will pray for you. Al- anon can help.
Philippians 4:19 (New International Version, ©2011)
And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.
He will meet your needs. God loves you very much.
Thank-you, my eyes teared up this morning while reading all these stories. I so much want to feel God’s presence.I know he is real, I have seen him before, I have felt him before.Thank-you for your prayers.
Praying!!! 6 years after divorce.. I’m praying whole-heartedly for my ex-husband and God’s restoration of our marriage. Separation may have been necessary for us,for a time, but divorce was never. Praying! Praying for wisdom and a soft heart for you.
I knew this thing was FOR REAL with God several years ago when my husband came to me sobbing and told me he had been addicted to pornography for years and knew that God was telling him to confess it before it was too late. Our marriage had become lifeless and unloving but we both would never divorce. He obeyed God – confessed to me, to his elder board brothers, to the body as a whole, stepped down from the board for a season of healing and even had what I would call a personality transplant! 🙂 God softened his heart as he became accountable to me and our pastor and everyone else who wanted to hear his story. Our marriage took a complete turn and God taught us to love each other deeply again. Now, who but God can do that, I ask you? Praise Him.
Beth, I’m so glad for your bravery on this subject because occasionally a tiny thought will pop inside my head like popcorn, mostly when I meditate on biblical history, about the “realness” of God. Which really catches me off guard and I wonder where in heaven’s name did that thought come from?! Yet it’s those everyday real life moments when we are living it out that make me turn my face toward heaven to our very real God. I could offer a mini-paragraph on how God saved my marriage or spared my son in an accident or when I sat in a heap on the floor bawling/grieving/celebrating the loss of my mother and her arrival in heaven – testimony type stuff when I felt Him so near me that I knew it was Him who carried me through! I say amen to it all, girlfriend! Your invitation was to “all those whom this applies”. Hey, I really like that! Pretty profound Beth. I’m praying that if there is one reader out there who discovers Jesus to be the “real thing” through these posts, then please let it be so. And lead our little Beth to know about it, and share it with us. Be glorified Lord!
It was during an Arise! Cry out! event at church. I was praying for my son, who was a college freshman at that time, to find a church near his college (7 hours away). When it was time for corporate prayer, I was drawn to an elderly lady who was sitting at the very back pew. I was kinda scared to approach her because she looked like she wanted to be alone, but I followed the Holy Spirit’s leading. As I laid out my prayer, it turned out she has two daughters living near my son’s college. Two! And she knew of two solid churches there. I couldn’t believe it. Of all the women in that church that morning, God led me to the one who had the answer to my prayer. I couldn’t stop crying when I heard her. It was as if God just whispered “I hear you, I am here.” I will never forget that experience.
Thank you for reminding me of it.
Beth, I have just been in a season of “dullness”, and praise God I am starting to feel alive again. I struggle with FEELING like my faith is for real even though I KNOW that it is. We had a team from our church in India this past week and they cast a demon out of a lady. It told them it had been in her since she was twelve years old. Hearing this story from 6 people whom I know and love dearly (including my pastor), knowing that they are truthful and were eyewitnesses..well it just brought me back to the fact that no matter how I may struggle to understand the mysteries of God at times, I am a new creation (as evidenced by a completely different lifestyle and outlook) and that there is just stuff going on that we can’t see. Just because we can’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t real. Faith is, as you said, “the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen”. Though I feel my faith is small at times, the object of my faith, Christ, has changed my life and is doing the same thing in hearts all over the world. When I feel “dull” I need to stay in the truth, because me being idle is me being ineffective in the fight against the evil one. Praise God that He renews our faith!
I have always been involved with some church. I guess for everyone those teenage years are tough but having come from a broken home and raised mostly by my loving, church-going grands who always were guided by the Word, I lost my grandmother when I was 12 and prayed so hard for a replacement for her in my life. Two years later, a sweet spinster lady met my Grandfather. She too had prayed for a good man to love most of her life. They married and she became my grandmother’s stand-in. It was like she was hand-picked by God(of course she was!) A few years later, after a couple of frogs, I prayed for God to send my soulmate. I met him in an unbelievable way the very next day. We have been married 30 years, the power of prayer makes me KNOW he is with us, maybe not answering our prayers according to our timeline but he does answer and he is always with me and seems most evident in my darkest hours.
I have “attended” church all my life. It wasn’t until I endured 3 heart breaking miscarriages that I truly came to know Christ. I now have 3 beautiful children! I thank God, my God for His ways. I am currently reading the Bible front to back and so EXCITED to learn more about Him everyday. It is also great to see my kids as they are growing hearts for Christ!
I saw first hand that God is real when I was driving along I-20. I was on my way to school (college) and was coming up behind a truck pulling a mobile home. A long bar fell off the back of that mobile home trailer and hit the road. The bar went to one side of the interstate and missed a car in the other lane and then went back across to the other side to miss my car. It was literally God’s hands moving that bar (the width of the drivng lane) from side to side to miss both sets of cars on the raod. I love Him and I belive Him and I am still learning to put my trust Him in all things. He is real! I know it, I believe it!
Hello to you all.
As you can see from my picture, I spent the last quarter of last year fighting breast cancer through surgery, and then chemotherapy. I think back to that first day when the Doctor called, and said “we found cancer”- I was terrified for about 12 hours – then in the middle of the night I heard him say “Do not fear, for I am with you,” and I remembered to start praying. Jesus was my very present help throughout my recovery. I have known Him to be very personal before, but never has He seemed so close. I am not a decisive person, but each time I was faced with a decision regarding my treatment, it was like I knew right away what to do. I am not prone to depression, but the chemo especially had a way of trying to drag me into the depths, and all I had to do was speak His Name, and I would recieve a phone call, or a card, or a text, or a song would come to mind, or scripture, and I knew He was there, holding my hand, taking the pain and despair away. He is real, Siestas – no doubt about it – and He is better than your very best BFF!! I came to think of it this way – He gives us the light at the end of the tunnel, to guide us and show us which direction to go, but more importantly, He is the Lamp at our feet, showing us each individual step, giving us the ability to live each individual day in His strength.
Thanks for letting me share.
Several years ago after battling infertility and a miscarriage, the strain on my already challenging marriage became too much for me. I had distanced myself from God at that point; looking back I can see I wasn’t close enough to begin with and I was also harboring anger at Him as well. But I just threw myself at His feet and said “I can’t handle this God; if you want me to stay in this marriage You’re going to have to save it”. And He did. He restored my marriage and it’s better now than ever. It wasn’t overnight and it wasn’t always easy. But I could see Him at work in so many ways. I prayed for Him to remove my desire for children if I couldn’t have any; and He did. To the point now I can honestly say that if not having children is what it took for me to be this close to God, then I praise Him for it. It’s worth it! I prayed for friends because I was lonely and He taught me how to be a better friend and now there are so many lovely women in my life that I dearly love! I know He is real because He didn’t leave me as I was!
Ten years ago, I was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins lymphoma, it was the scariest time of my life. There were prayers that flooded my life and I was overwhelmed that GOD was indeed real and ever-present. Each and every step of the way from losing my hair to the first chemo and up to the last chemo and then the radiation, God was present!! As I walked through the doors for each treatment HE met me with open arms, the fears were calmed and even removed and I had a blast as many of my closest friends came to each treatment. I was never alone for a moment. The laughter we shared as the medicine went through my veins the lunches that were brought and shared. This aweful event of my life was turned into HIS glory and what a living testimony it was. God was real and no one can take that away. He was yesterday, today and tomorrow. YEA GOD IS REAL AND LIVES. And I am forever changed!!!!
For me one of the most profound of these seasons was just recently. My husband and I were leaving on a vacation when instead, we found ourselves in the hospital and eventually ICU. On several occasions, I thought the Lord was ushering the love of my life into His presence, and out of mine. My lip is quivering at the mere memory of it. But God’s presence with me, voice to me and support of me were unmistakably, undeniably REAL!
How? you may ask? Let me count the ways:
The very day before we left, I “stumbled” on a verse card I’d made for me and my daughter last summer while we were ready SLI together: Psalm 112:7-8a
“He has no fear of bad news;
his heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD.
His heart is secure, he will have no fear…”
Since my husband’s heart was the culprit of his malady, this verse came charging to mind as they wheeled him off for the first of many invansive hearts tests/procedures.
Another:
That very morning in my time with the Lord, I’d read Psalm 61:2
“From the ends of the earth I call to you,
I call as my heart grows faint;
lead me to the rock that is highere than I.”
At some point, I found myself alone in an elevator and heard the Lord (not audibly:)) speak this clearly over me.
When I went back the next morning to see how the Lord had directed me to that verse, I found that I’d actually looked up the wrong chapter from what was in the study I was doing. Not so wrong, huh?
I’d like to say that after these and several other clear words from the Lord that everything went great, but in fact, the days got darker as my husband’s condition destablized. I believe God’s answer to me was that just b/c He’d spoken, didn’t mean everything was going to be Okay. It meant I was going to be Okay (I’m pretty sure that’s from someone’s lyrics; please don’t sue).
Well, so much for the meaty paragraph. These are more like chicken nuggets. Today my sweetie’s heart is stable and, thanks to God and His Word, so is mine. My takeaway? God is real. His Word is alive and it works. He works!
“I believe God’s answer to me was that just b/c He’d spoken, didn’t mean everything was going to be Okay. It meant I was going to be Okay.”
Kathy, those are life-changing words (yours or not 😉 ). Thanks~
‘So glad God was faithfully feeding us both.
Beth,
Thinking back a few years ago when the enemy came to battle myself and my family……..a diagnosis of cancer for me, my granddaughter a diagnosis of leukemia, my father leukemia, my husband demenia……….it was a dark time for us but God is faithful and we praise his holy name.
Annette
In 2003, my favorite person in the world passed away. He was my great-uncle, 48 years my senior, and my hero. During the choking grief that followed his death, I came to experience God as my Solid Rock, my Comforter, my Friend, and my Healer. I remember feeling as though I was falling through a dark hole…only to find solid rock at the bottom. I would not sink forever—He was there! I couldn’t tell if I was going to explode from grief or gratitude. The One who provided that unlikely relationship, would take care of “all these things” as well. This is a huge marker in my faith walk. In the year Uncle Joe died…I saw the Lord. ☺
Hey Beth,
I have too many experiences to count as to knowing that our God is real so I’ll share my most recent one. I had been praying for months for God to take my heart of stone and turn it into a heart of flesh and to create a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me. It was a scripture that had I camped on for a good long while. As I was walking the beach praying those words to my God, the tide came up and right at my feet was a smooth flat rock with a pink heart right in the middle of it!!! I picked it up and fell to my knees praising God. i felt it was his way of letting me know that he heard me and was for me! thanks so much for letting me share. That rock holds a permanent place in my purse as a reminder that my God is faithful and hears those who seek Him!
Denise from CT
God is so precious!
Not long ago, I started So Long Insecurity. I was very frightened because at the outset I realized that I did not believe God loved me and I feared that my greatest insecurity was my relationship with Him. Within a matter of about a day, I realized there was another issue that I was going to deal with during the study which terrified me almost into quitting. (the thought of combining the 2 together was entirely too scary) Needless to say, He showed up that weekend at church in such an enormous way that I had no choice but to believe that He IS real. Not only did He squelch my lack of belief in His love, He used this study, and a confession out of left field, to heal a part of me that had been broken for over 15 years.
Oh Beth you did a wonderfully accurate description of the Christian walk!
And along those lines: although I could, like most, account time after time, miracle after documented miracle, when God showed Himself true and loving; I am wondering if it isn’t the culmination of all of those, & daily life, & interacting with other Christians experiencing the move of God, that is a constant confirmation that I serve a living, loving, real God. I am not who I was 40 years ago when God was but a storybook God. Maybe that is the biggest testimony of a real, caring, still involved God – healing a damaged and broken person. It is not as flashy as some of the miracles I have personally seen – but probably the most long lasting.
Wish I could say it better. Thanks for turning our eyes upwards today towards our living, constantly praying, Savior, Jesus Christ.
love
mk
mk, I loved your post and mine was much the same. Consistentcy, living it out day after day after day, aware of Him and His presence in all things, giving thanks as we go along, learning with each step we take, proving him over and over and over again. I’ve heard it said that the inconsistent christian is one of the enemy’s best tools. I’m praising God with and for you, sister, as we “live it out”! 🙂
October 26, 2009 was the day I learned my birth mother’s name: Elizabeth Ann. She goes by Ann which means “full of grace.” I love that. One week later she emailed me our story that I had waited 49 years to know. Ann wrote: “As far as I was concerned at that time, my life was over. (She was 19 years old.) Now I know that God had other plans for me. I just could not see it then.” Here are God’s powerful words spoken through Ann: “I wanted you to know that I loved you from the very beginning. Through my prayers, I put you in God’s care but kept you in my heart.” That was all I needed to know, all l I needed to hear. You see, I always thought of myself as a mistake and that God couldn’t love someone like me. Satan’s lie that I believed all my life was crushed! Darkness to light. Redemption. Truth. HE LOVES ME AND ALWAYS HAS. He loves you too, no matter what. He always has and He always will.
I’ve tasted being held captive in sin.
And I’ve tasted being not only forgiven, but being freed of that sin.
Noone, but noone, but noone can do that other than the Living God.
Let me tell you – I am FREE!
Columbus, Ohio here. In what Season of my life did I know for sure that God was real? When my now 30 year old daughter was nearly killed in a car accident at the age of 16. When we received word of the accident and made the 4 hour drive to the hospital, God reminded me that in Romans it says All things work together for good to those who love God and who are the called according to His purpose. He reminded me all things were all things, not just the good things. During those long days and nights spent at the hospital, in re-hab and countless doctor appts, He reminded me that His grace was sufficent enough to meet my needs and that He would never leave me nor forsake me. Often times on the ride home from the hospital after grueling days of set backs it was like He was riding right there in the car with me spurring me on, comforting me and promising me that no matter what He would still be there. That’s when I knew this was real and that I could stand on his promises. Praise God!
My “God is Real” moment involves His sense of humor. I was walking on the beach one day and God and I had been in conversation almost since I stepped bare toes in the sand. I was approaching the Santa Monica Pier and needed to clean my feet off so I could put my shoes back on. I walked to the edge of the water. A little lap came ashore and barely covered the side of my feet. I said “okay, I need a little bit more than that.” The next wave soaked me up to my knees. We had a grand laugh as I rolled down my wet jeans. I still laugh when I think about that. Maybe not THE aha moment, but it demonstrated that he was there, listening to me and likes the sound of laughter.
just at the end of last summer i was having an affair on my husband. i have been a christian for years but through the tangled lies of the enemy i found myself willing to destroy my entire family(us plus 4 sons!!). i found myself uttering words, feeling things, making decisions that i couldn’t even believe. i describe it as a fog. long story VERY short, praise our Lord that i don’t have the kind of husband that just lets me go. i turned my back on him, my sons, but mostly my God. praise our Lord that i don’t have a God that just lets me go…through a series of days, conversations and events i was with my husband one morning and BAM!!! clarity…shame…brokeness…repentence…forgiveness…healing…GOD was IN the room! as real as the person next to you…holding the two of us and physically begining the mending of our marriage.
We’ve been going through a major job and financial change. My husband and I committed to earnestly pray for His will for family in what ever direction He wanted us to go. My children love to dance to the Rizers, and one evening when I was anxious and couldn’t sleep, I reached for my ipod which had the Rizers cd on it. I feel asleep listening to track 8 “1Thessiolians 5:15-18.” That weekend on a scrapbooking retreat at a Christian camp, I needed a break from my pictures and pretty papers. I went for a walk, and there in the middle of the woods, nailed to trees were signs with scriptures – plain as day, staring me in the face. Literally almost every song on that very cd was nailed to a tree. My eyes burned with tears, there it was: 1Thessilonians 5:15-18 “Be joyful ALWAYS and pray continually. Give thanks in ALL circumstances. For this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (Emphasized words were actually underlined on the sign) I am in awe of a God who loves me so much that He gave His son on a tree for me and then hung little love notes in a random forest to encourage and show me He was so very real and to spell out His will for me that I had asked for ♥
I was raised in church, but never knew anyone who had a real relationship with Christ. I thought I already had it “all”. As an adult, after two divorces and living with a third man, always seeking relationship and happiness and never finding it, I had for three years been suicidal and miserable. For one solid year, I had daily cried out to God…out of desperation, not so much believe but desperation, “God help me.” I also committed to reading atleast ONE verse of scripture a day. Then one day on a whim I loaded up my three young kids and went to a church production, “Heaven’s Gates Hell’s Flames” and there my two youngest kids accepted Christ right before my eyes. (My oldest had done so years earlier). God was IN MY FACE, he was ALL AROUND ME. He answered my prayers for my children to accept him (I prayed they accept him so they would not go to HELL), and for years he had not been on the back burner, he had not even been on the stove. I knew in that moment that I could never live any other way but for HIM; went home and moved out of the guy’s house (no tv, no bed, no couch) and have lived in a love relationship with God ever since. I have only been blessed over and over and over. At times it has been very hard, but he has provided for me every step of the way. I am still alone, no magical Cinderella story here, unless you consider the fact that the Lord my God is my husband and the very perfect provider. I rejoice in his perfect plan and the new and life-filled things he is doing in my life even now. To God be the glory!
I stepped out of the shower and started to get ready to go to the grocery store one day about four years ago and felt God’s presence so strongly and so keenly that it just about knocked me flat on the floor. At the time, I had been battling clinical depression for almost five years. I felt God speak to my heart so precisely at that moment that I literally looked around me and said out loud, “Is that You, Lord?” Can you imagine??? Robe thrown on, towel piled up on my sopping-wet head — I must’ve been a sight to behold. Although I didn’t hear audible words, I distinctly felt Him tell me that I was free. Shortly after, I went off my antidepressants for good (with doctor’s approval, of course). Although I was raised and baptized a Christian, it wasn’t until that day that I fell to my knees and gave my life to Christ. Nothing, praise Him, has been the same since. Not once since that day have I doubted for a millisecond that He is real.
I was 21 when I understood and believed that there was a God who loved me. At age 35, I was diagnosed with MS and my whole world seemed to come crashing down. But, God came alongside me and began to show me who He really was. It’s been quite a journey, but 18 years later I know God as my Father, my Papa. He has shown me in these years His deep and amazing love for me. I know He has created, formed and redeemed me and I am His child. I am precious to Him and He tells me He loves me (Isaiah 43:1,4). As I spend time with Him, whether in worshiping Him, talking to Him in prayer, reading His Word or just being quiet before Him – this is how I have grown to know Him better. When I have tough days or days where I begin to doubt, I go back to Him and He strengthens me. It is always my choice. I would rather go with my God who is real, than anything the world has to offer.
In 2006 I was told that I needed to have a biopsy on a “node” I had on my thyroid. I’d had thyroid issues for so long, I wasn’t concerned. A couple of weeks before the scheduled date, I was speaking at a women’s retreat on the topic of Trusting God. God point blank asked me if I believed what I was speaking on and I assured Him I did. The day before the biopsy, my office was having their normal prayer time and I asked them to pray that the Dr. doing the procedure would have steady hands (the thoughts of someone sticking needles in my throat was not so appealing). They did. The next day I drove myself 45 minutes to the hospital to have the procedure done. At one point, I looked down at the clock and had the thought that my boss was probably praying for me that very moment. The minute I had that thought my entire van was filled with the Holy Spirit (I mean I could feel Him) and the Lord spoke to me and said, “You have no idea how many people are praying for you.” I was completely overcome and cried the rest of the way to the hospital.
Once I got there, they prepped me and took me down to have the procedure done. As I lay on the bed, the doctor walked in. He was soooo young looking, I asked him if he really was the doctor and asked him how old he was. He laughed and told me that although he might look young, not to worry “I HAVE STEADY HANDS”. Ladies I just about came off of the bed! God couldn’t have spoken to me any more clearly than He did that day! The exact, and I mean exact thing I prayed for God gave me. The rest of the story is that I did have to have my thyroid removed and there was cancer in it. But I would never trade that experience and the closeness I felt to God during that time for anything! He reminded me once again just how much He loves me and every detail of my life! He is so good and trustworthy! ;o)
Kimberly
My “Christmas Tree” turnaround happened the Christmas of 2000. I had only been married two years. We had been hoping for our first pregnancy for over a year. I was working 80+ hours/week and, therefore having little to no time with my husband and even less with the Lord. I had grown uber-dull in my faith walk as I continued to trudge forward in work. So I sat in front of my Christmas tree a couple days before Christmas – LATE – wrapping presents and wondering how my life had become pretty much totally empty. I decide to write a ‘present’ to Jesus. On a 3×5 card (which I still have) I wrote a Birthday Card and promised Him I’d recommit to Bible Study and being a great wife – I dedicated our unborn children to him and told Him I loved Him. Then I stuffed the note in the branches on the back of the tree. Promptly forgetting every promise I’d made.
On Christmas, my husband gave me the okay to quit my job and just slowly find something a little more sane to do. I gave 4 weeks notice that Monday. No job waiting. Then I emailed my distribution list of friends and told them I was slowing down a bit and wanting to get my life in better balance. One sent a link to a National Bible Study organization. I followed it. Its national offices were a few miles from my front door. Without any clue, I called and told them I was interested in any position that could use my professional skills.
As Forest Gump said, “GOD SHOWED UP.” Within another week I had been offered a job with no title and no salary specifications that required me to attend a local weekly Bible Study (for further training) and that encouraged me to be home with my husband at a reasonable hour each day. We took down our Christmas tree shortly after I accepted this bizarre job offer. We found the note. The Lord had taken my small step of faith and poured POURED the blessings on!
So, The ministry met daily in prayer and I am convinced prayed my first child into my womb. I only worked there 9 months but that experience launched me on an amazing journey. Three kids and 10plus years of Bible Study later I could not begin to tell you how many times GOD HAS SHOWN UP. He’s so real!! I can hear him laughing with my praises now!!
I had been raised in a churched home and had “prayed the sinners prayer” in 1990, but it was my Christmas Tree turning point that SOLD ME OUT for Jesus. There was no more double living. I will never be the same and, praise God, I don’t wanna be.
Oh how I pray that any of you still wondering will take that baby step… and expect the RIDE OF YOUR LIFE! He ROCKS!
HELLO!
As most stories begin…..
Once upon a time.. I was reading a book by Stasi Eldredge called “Captivating.” I’m very picky about which Christian Books I read, due do this abundance of fluff-e-ness but! I decided to be open-minded and dove into this one and boy, God showed up. She kept emphasizing how much Christ woos us and I needed that, desperately. We all need that. To know we’re adored, cherished, worth something. I popped in a new CD I had just purchased, rolled down the windows (it was summer) and went for a drive. There’s a farm near by.. no street lights, not much noise…that was my destination. When I got there, I heard the Holy Spirit telling me to slow down and turn off my car lights. Immediately, I thought, “YOU ARE CRAZY!” but, I did and to my amazement, there were literally, hundreds of lightning bugs, flickering all around my car. I began to wheep because God, the Creator of these little creatures, orchestrated this. Just for me and no one else. I will never forget it. To this day, whenever I hear “Nothing but the blood” (which was the song playing in my car) it brings me right back to that moment and reassures my heart, singing, “What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus….”
Amen? Amen.
Carrie I had chills reading your story. I had something very similar happen to me too. I guess I’m crazy too!!!! I was in my car worshiping to a cd and was beckoned to pull over too…what he revealed to me I will never forget..thank you for posting this..it was for me.I wish everyone could see beyond what is in front of them and see our powerful God .
Lori, Pelham NH. I came to saving faith in Christ late in life at age 33. By then I had a 5 month old son. Within 3 years we had 2 more children. When my boys (Sam & Ben) were 4 and 6, they were diagnosed with a progressive and fatal disease called Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, (my daughter Lydia is also a carrier). In an instant our entire lives had been changed and all my hopes and dreams for my children had been shattered into a million pieces. God was never so real to me as He was that first month after their diagnosis. We had a significant house fire and were living in a hotel when they were diagnosed. I remember weeping from the depths of my soul to the Lord one morning when I thought the kids were still asleep. When I came out of the bedroom, 6-yo Ben asked me why I had been crying. I pulled him onto my lap and told him that altho I was sad, God was good and everything would be ok. Right after that we did morning devotions together (Keys for Kids) and the verse that day was “Jesus wept”. In his goodness, God reminded me that He was weeping with me and that he would carry me throu this trial. Ben and Sam are now almost 15 and 13, they both use power wheelchairs and need a lot of care. But God has kept his promise and is working all things together for good. I co-lead a Joni and Friends moms group for other mothers with disabilities and God is using our weakness to encourage others (2 Cor. 1:1-3). He is real and He is good!
Beth this has been a hard one to answer, because I would love to talk endlessly about how God has been real to me.
It was 1985, I had just finished Bible College in a city far from my home town, and didn’t know where life was leading and what God would bring me to, or how I would move on. I was at a girlfriend’s house in the same city of the Bible College, we were having our last weekend together befofe I headed home. We decided on a whim to have pizza. I had been praying for God to direct me, I was afraid to go home and life would be the same as it was before I went away. Then as we opened the pizza box, on the inside of the flap in bright red ink stamped was:
“For I know the plans that I have for you declare the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD and will bring you back from captivity.” Jer 29:11-14
I was dumbfounded! After we ate, I cut that stamp out and carried that boxlid for many, many years. KNOWing God had spoke to me. I have since thrown out the box- but that verse still carries me to this day and I am at peace with the One Who sent it to this confused girl.
Life has never been easy, but I know He has THE PLAN for it all!!!
It was the summer of 1991. I was 23, in dark oppression and depression, unable to eat or keep food down. I had been a Christian since I was 8, going to church every Sunday, having grown up with godly parents who were active leaders in the church. But in a very real sense, my faith was theirs and not yet my own. Until one evening I still remember vividly. I had been put on an antidepressant and had felt the immediate rebalancing of the chemicals in my brain but still felt the very real presence of the spiritual oppression over me. I had been reading a book by Billy Graham and read this: “Sometimes God withdraws to test your faith. Reach out by faith in the dark and you will find that He is there.” So I knelt down beside my bed and said to God, “I don’t know what to believe anymore, but I am choosing right now to just believe You are who the Bible says You are.” Immediately the spiritual depression (dark cloud) over me snapped and was gone. I felt it happen! My journey to emotional health and freedom in Christ has taken many years, but that was the beginning. I have never again doubted the reality of God in my life. My faith is my own. Oh, blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
My journey in faith has taken a dramatic turn for the “REAL” when I began to pray Gods word outloud in faith over my life and the lives of my husband and family. One of my biggest “pits” was fear. We’ve had some tremendous opportunities to fear the last few years. Loss of job, problems between my husband and myself, health issues. Through each one, the LORD has taught me to trust him in different ways through different scriptures. But there have been several times when I was absolutely frozen with fear and dread and cried out to him to save me from the fear. I can remember at one point using the phrase “hide me in the secret place!” It was all I could remember. What I experienced was so dramatic it left me breathless. INSTANT relief from fear and a peace I could drown in! And it didn’t wear off. Each time he has stepped in to dramatically deliver me, it has increased my faith and my dependence on HIM.
I KNEW that I was incapable of that kind of change in my self.
Heidi
I struggled daily with self-mutilation for 12 years. I figured that after enduring all the abuse I’d suffered as a child, surely God could understand my one little coping mechanism that got me through the day, alive. When my husband and I decided to start a family, I knew I would have to stop. Not because I loved myself enough to quit, but because I loved my children enough to quit. The last time I intentionally harmed myself was in January of 2006. Fast forward to 2011. This year I knew was my 5-year anniversary of strength only the Lord could have given me to withstand Satan’s daily temptations. I could not remember the actual date, for the life of me, so I pulled out my box of old journals until I found the right page. Bile rose in my throat as I saw the date written on the page. NO. ANY day but that. The day? January 22…. the SAME DAY my precious baby boy was born last year. Why, WHY of all the 31 days in January, did my sweet boy have to be born on such a scarred day? Then He spoke to me, and the word He put on my heart was REDEMPTION. He meant for my son to have that birthday, all along. My God is ABLE to redeem and He is WILLING to redeem everything! There is NO ONE like Him! So I KNOW He is FOR REAL. I would not be here today otherwise.
Amazing!
One time that God became so real to me was when I was on a missions trip to Ukraine in 1999. I was staying with a Ukrainian family, and after ministering in a church on Christmas Eve, we stopped to get a torte; their children and I waited in the car. During our wait, we were car jacked and my passport was lost in the ensuing chaos. God protected us, we got back to the little store, and then we all spent the evening in the police station giving our report. While I sat there (no interpreter), I just prayed God would burden others’ hearts back in the States to pray for me. {Throughout the rest of the trip, He showed Himself to me in other very personal, powerful ways, too.} Upon return, a friend asked me, “What time did this happen because I could not get you off my heart?!” It was the exact same time I had prayed. He is so personal when He speaks! {Experiencing God is a great study if you’re a new believer and want to know more about how God speaks to you.}
I went through a long season of severe undiagnosed abdominal pain in which I seriously came to grips with the reality of death–at 20 years old. I quickly went through the stages of grief reckoning with my own mortality and wondering if God really existed and if I could trust Him enough with my life and eternity. Thankfully, I cried, I yelled, I got mean, and I got real with God and God alone. In the quietness of my bedroom one night, He washed over me with that peace which transcends all understanding and I knew. I KNEW that I was in His perfect hands and that I didn’t have to worry. Then and there I believed without a shadow of a doubt that it didn’t matter whether I lived or died because I was in the palm of His hand. Turns out, I had signs of appendicitis for a few months which eventually became a week-long ruptured appendix requiring emergency surgery and hospitalization, but I lived. The unbelieving doctors called me their miracle patient even going so far as to say, “It was as if the hand of God held the toxins in each of the three pieces of your appendix.” Yeah, He did. But only after I’d fully surrendered to Him and found my rest in Him.
One Sunday evening we were headed to an evening church service, but I was not feeling like going, because of some terrible pain and stiffness in my neck. I could not move my head from side to side or up and down without remarkable shooting pain. We checked the kids into nursery and the service began with worship and praise. Thinking about what I was singing, I was able to forget about my neck for the moment. After awhile, our pastor spoke to the congregation and said something along the line of how The Lord was in our midst and was touching bodies and healing, both physically and spiritually. It was at the very moment that I felt a warm sensation on my neck and as I cautiously moved it from side to side and up and down, imagine how wondrously awed I was to feel NO PAIN with any motion, but only a warm tingling sensation! God touched me! I am nobody special, but He touched ME! Sad to say, but I am being honest when I tell you that I could not believe that our mighty God would have bothered with me. I realized then that I hadn’t even asked Him to heal me; I figured I would work through it with time. Wow! Even now, years later as I recall that moment, I am moved to know that The Mighty God we speak of and hear of would bother with me! And yet I am so glad He did, because I knew I had personally been touched and healed miraculously by our living God! Indisputably. Undeniably. Indutiably! A good reminder on my hard days, when life throws me doubts.
Where to even begin??
As I look through my journals and prayer notebook, I see answer after answer. Not always the answer I was looking for, mind you, but answers none-the-less. From healings to deaths, seasons of joy to deep pain, long-haul requests to the short and sweet that needed attention…. God has been faithful.
One SMALL example from last week: A friend of mine is in a HARD place in her marriage. A very real and painful decision point. I had been praying for her late one night and one word kept coming to my mind: STEADFAST. (Not a word I can recall thinking of in the recent past!) So I got up in the morning, looked for EVERYWHERE in the Word that “steadfast” occurred (there are quite a few!) and turned to my lexical aids to really “get” what this word meant. So I read it, mulled it, prayed it… and then TEXTED it to her as what I believed God was saying. She texted me back almost instantly the following: “God is amazing. The very verse He gave me this morning was from Psalms about my heart being steadfast. Thanks for sharing. I am singing praise songs today. I want to be steadfast in God….”
This amazing God is sovereign over world events and the landscape of our lives. This is just one small story from this past week that proves it yet again.
Be blessed today, sweet siesta sisters!!! God is ON THE THRONE!
I could share several meaty stories, but what it always comes down to is the day to day REAL RELATIONSHIP I have with the Lord, and knowing He is with me and knowing He hears me when I call, knowing a love the world can’t understand and peace the world can’t know without Him. I have been saved since I was eleven years old and I am fifty two, and it has always been Real. Real faith, real grace, real joy, real mercy, real comfort, real strength, real hope, and real eternal life!