This has been one of my favorite songs over the last year, but this week it became a little more personal.  We give intellectual consent that God is sovereign and that He is in control, but it is times like this that we grow our faith.  It is times like this that we see if our saving faith is actual and much more than intellectual faith.  Will we set fear aside and trust that God truly has a plan to provide a future and hope?

I have spent most of the day thinking about all of the situations that I have come through in my life and it is not a short list.  The truth is that in times of great despair, times of sadness, times of anxiety, the Lord has been there the whole time and the fear in my mind sometimes inflates a situation larger than it is.  God gave us the emotion of fear to draw us back to Him; sometimes it is overthinking and sometimes real danger, but either way we should seek refuge with God.  Today I recalled  being airlifted out of a Philippine jungle and literally praying for death to come quickly, but God had better plans for me.  I remembered having a gun in my chest, a broken engagement, trapped in a bank robbery (more than once actually), lost love, death, litigation and divorce to name a few, all things that came and went.

Each time, God has brought me through, taught me a lesson, healed the pain and puts me back on course to become the man that He wants me to be.  What I was reminded of today is that He is with me with a hope that does not disappoint.  He woke me up, gave me the strength to pray, spoke to my heart and gave me a little hope.  He pointed out the very words that I just wrote about life being a marathon and not a sprint.  That was encouraging because this is still a time of preparation and I am still uncertain about the things I am being prepared for, I just know I have to get ready.  That has been the case for over a year now, so in the big picture, little has changed.  Going forward, I need to continue to walk with Him, pray, take every thought captive, make sure my hope is not misplaced and remember that with God, all things are possible.  

(I sat down to post this video and really didn’t plan on writing anything, so here it is, I hope you enjoy the song).