dear heart...

Dear Heart,

Why do you forget so easily the faithfulness of your God?

Why, at the first sign of trouble, heartache, confusion, loss of control, and hardships-do you go into "I must fix this" mode. And if you can't find a solution, you worry yourself to pieces. Why?

You know to trust God.

You know He is bigger than anything you will ever face.

You know He works all things together for the good of those who love Him, and are called according to His purpose.

And that is you. Even though sometimes you don't feel like you are called. You are. According to His purpose.

This is just a bump in the road. A chance to trust God and gain more character that will sustain you through the race and give you strength to endure till the end.

Look back and remember where your Father has brought you from, and how He has taken care of you your entire life.

Remember when you were only a child, and your daddy left your family? No love or support. There one day, gone the next. How you never learned to trust in a father because he damaged that image at such a young age. Your heavenly Father held you and took care of you since before you were born. Your daddy was never perfect. He was a man. You Father is not a man and He can, and will never fail you. He will always take care of you.

Remember when you were addicted to prescription drugs and one night He set you free? Remember how much joy filled your heart when you asked Jesus to be Lord of your life? How have you forgotten what that felt like?

Remember when you would squat down in front of the toilet to throw up, multiple times a day, everyday for six months. Those times you would lay on the bathroom floor and weep? Your Father was holding you. Drying every tear.

Remember the night you held a razor in your hand, getting ready to take the precious life God gave you...and how He intervened on your behalf and forced you to put it down, speaking His love in a way that was more real and tangible than you had ever known before? How that night He healed you from an eating disorder, depression, cutting addiction, and a suicidal desire...and set in your heart eternal, unspeakable joy? Have you forgotten?

Don't you remember when He gave you your first car, for free? And when that broke, how He provided a way it to get fixed? Then when it gave out completely, remember how He sent someone to buy it, and the day you prayed for a new car to come that day, He led you to the exact one you needed at the time?

Remember last year when your bank account was near empty and a perfect stranger gave you a check for $200? And how money would come from random places and people in the mail? How when you didn't know where the next tank of gas was going to come from, He always made a way and you never ran out?

Remember how this summer, you needed a doctor but didn't have money, He made a way for you to see one at the dream center, even though they were booked up for the next three months. Have you forgotten?

Remember how your sister was given three months to live, and God healed her? He is the God of the impossibles.

Remember how He healed your immune system after an entire year of being sick as the result of bulimia? He works miracles.

Remember how you asked for years for God to give you a spiritual father, and two months after moving to Alabama, He gave you the best man in the world to fill that spot? He is faithful.

Remember, dear heart. Don't forget the ways He has taken care of you. Don't focus on what is not here right now, focus on what you do have. You might be uncomfortable, taken to inconvenience, frustrated, angry, sad...but you must never allow that to get in the way of your faith. You must always remember the faithfulness of your God.

He has never failed you. Has He? Not once. And He never will.

Stand on the rock. Don't let your faith sink into the sand and the waves crashing around you.

You are stronger than the way you have been acting.

Stop it.

Be done.

Your Father has got you. There's no need to fret, sweetheart.

God is using your present challenges to strengthen you for greater conquests in your future.

Don't let the enemy fill you with discouragement and doubt.

The enemy only comes to steal, kill and destroy.

Don't let him.

Bind his lies. Loose faith.

Don't take his junk as your own any longer. Take up your shield and fight. Take captive every thought.

Your Father has provided. He is providing. And He will provide.

He has been faithful. He is faithful. And He will be faithful till the end.

Believe. Simply trust and believe.

You might not feel deserving or worthy to receive His love, blessing and provisions- but you are.

He wants to bless you. You just have to trust.

Open your hands. Stop clinging so tightly to something you can't do anything about. Let go. And keep your hands open so that you may receive when He sees fit to pour out.

Your Father loves you, sweet heart.

There's no need to fret.

Be still.

Be still and know that He is God. You are His child. You are His. He's got you.

Remember.

Never forget.