Year 25 baby!

This is year 25. Wow. God only knows how much I am looking forward to having this year behind me. Yet I am also pressing forward being thankful of a year of learning the hard way of what TRUST actually looks like and the FREEDOM in Christ that comes as an amazing gift of grace. More than ever I am just so grateful for LIFE and the one who makes us ALIVE.

Up until this past year, I literally lived in a constant state of stress. I made my home in it, and it was my normal. Little did I know that I had major health issues because of it, but my main reason for living in a state of stress: NOT knowing how to truly trust God… at least not 100%.

Ever felt that?

I had so much difficulty understanding and believing that I could literally give up control over my life and hand it over to the Lords to guide and protect. Even though I loved God and worshiped Him the best way I knew how, I still didn’t get it. How could there be someone who could take all of my anxieties and mend them to His perfect will?

Firstly, I had to learn to WAIT. I had to learn to wait on the Lord to provide and answers my prayers. Nothing happens overnight, and retraining my mind to want control to letting God have it all took time and practice. But let me tell you, waiting on the Lord is part of the amazing adventure of trusting in His name.

It’s a beautiful thing to learn to wait on God to reveal HIS plans for your life.

Secondly, I had to learn to SEEK Him and SUBMIT to Him. Trusting God is a daily thing, not a one time tradition on a Sunday morning service. It was up to me to seek His WORD and TRUTH to apply it to my life. And when we are seeking Him out daily, in a personal relationship, waiting on His answers becomes easier and almost a natural way of living.

The truth is this: When we choose not to trust in God, we miss out on His purpose for our life. When we take our life in our own control, we settle for second best.

The wonderful thing is that God never stops chasing after us. He never gives up for us or leaves us. He leaves the 99 and goes to find the one who is lost.

And what does trusting give us? It gives us the most precious gift of living in FREEDOM. I used to believe that if I would completely give my life over to God, I would live in His box, but what happens is God tares down the box we created in our minds and sets us on a redemptive path we never knew was out there.

Are you living like grace is a gift that is wrapped but not yet opened? It's time to open the gift of grace and freedom. But the first step is TRUSTING in the God who makes all things possible.