Standing On His Promises

 Your yard is soaking wet. Water pressure in your house is low.

Google says it must be a water line leak.

You find YouTube videos that tell you how you can fix it yourself and you go to the local Home Depot to get the tools and all the material needed.

You start digging under the ground to get to the pipes. The dirt is super hard (it is here at our house, anyways). Before you even get to the pipe, you are worn out from the shovel.

You put your foot down and give the hardest push yet…you are tired and ready to get the job done.

You hear cracking. The dirt is hard, but not THAT hard…

Water starts coming up in your face.

Crap. You forgot to turn off the water before starting this project.

You rush to do that.

Now you have to go back to home depot because you have broken the pipe where it wasn’t even cracked.

Now, had you called a plumber, you probably wouldn’t be in this position and the pipe may have already been repaired.

So you decide the project is too big, and call them to come fix the original leak and the one you caused while trying to do it yourself.

You spent a couple hundred dollars on materials you didn’t use, spent lots of time and sweat on the labor. Had you called the plumber, you would’ve been standing in the window watching them do the work with confidence while sipping on your iced tea.

I have been repeatedly asked about my peace. I FINALLY, at 40, learned that God wants the best for us. Even when we get our OWN selves into messes, He will do the hard work, if we repent to Him and trust Him.

Truly Letting Go is something we, humans, rarely do. It is hard not to be in control of your surroundings. But whew, when I did it, I can promise you I have never felt the way I do now. I thought some of the difficulties I had in the past were hard. My current storm is kinda like 2020 has been with the world (just using the comparison based on how people see it). All in one spot. All ‘bad weather’ thrown at me at once. But I am calm and peaceful because my eyes are staying fixed on Our Father…Provider, Protector, Sustainer, Refuge, Strong Tower, Healer, Comforter, among so many other awesome titles He carries.

I am at a point I didn’t even know existed. I never experienced letting go like this. I never knew what praying for God’s will without adding in my own idea of what needs to happen. I no longer pray for God to make something happen, or for Him to make someone do or say something I want to see/hear. I pray for His will, His timing, His way.

I have days, no lie, that I am down and I begin to get discouraged. What I have realized, however, is that as I have leaned in more on Him, He is quick to send me encouragement. Many times in a song. Sometimes in a sermon I listen to. Sometimes in a book. The bible. And today it was through a stranger. A sister in Christ who just happens to have experience with the same type of nasty storm.

I get daily, sometimes hourly, reminders of His promise, of His strength, of His will. I get encouragement before I can cling to the negative and disappointment in the ‘not yet’ of this. I don’t want things to be ‘the same’, I don’t want results based on “I guess’ . I want God to do what He desires to do so that everything and everyone gets on the path He has designed for us…for me.

We can choose to try to speed things up, get them cheaper, and cause more of a delay, or we can obey, trust, and STAND still and watch God be God, while we rest in His Promise of what is ahead.

I do that, now. And I am so so happy I do.