It's Never As Hard As It Looks: Paint Your Situation the Color of Victory

Have you ever painted your walls a color that didn’t look the same as in the store? It seemed dull and depressing in the space. Yet under the lighting in the store the color looked picture-perfect for your room. Much the same way, when viewing certain areas of our lives under the light of our natural perceptions, things may appear dull and depressing and solutions may look hard to reach.

From my own experiences I can emphatically tell you that hard times are not as hard as they look, unless of course you are looking at them through the wrong type of lighting. If you are looking at your circumstances through the wrong eyes, wrong thoughts and wrong people, you will see the wrong outcomes. You will see struggle, stress and strain. There could be a seemingly insurmountable and hopeless situation before you, but I know from life lessons that looking under the right lighting, these situations are no match for who you are and how you’ve been equipped. With a different lighting perspective, those situations will shrink like a piece of wool fabric that’s thrown in the wash.

Looking back on the time my SUV was totaled in an accident, initially it looked hopeless. My wonderful husband’s philosophy was we’d paid off the note and the SUV was over five years old so this meant he could drop the collision insurance.  His thinking was if the car is totaled, we will just buy another car. Granted it was a foolish maneuver because we didn’t recover the car’s value which could have been used towards the purchase of a new car. During a different season, yes we could possibly just buy another car. During the time the accident occurred, however, we were seriously hurting financially. Buying another car looked impossible! (You must know I wasn’t happy at all with Mr. Wonderful in this episode.)  But my point is I had to look past my situation and see the results through the light of God’s Kingdom provision.

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Faith Gives Power Over Pain: When You're Hurting Choose Faith, Not Fear

In my last article I shared my cousin’s story about her trusting God in her faith walk.  If you didn’t read that article, you may want to read it here before you continue reading on. This week’s article is especially dedicated to the women who responded in transparency about their own personal stories, and also to those who are facing intimidating challenges.

I wish there were words that I could put on this page that would immediately remove your challenges as soon as your eyes and the words connect, but I can’t. I so desire to pray a prayer for you that will instantly annihilate the situation, pain and suffering, but I can’t. But what I can do is share with you what I know about life, our God, and the faith that he has given to each of us. You have the measure of faith already within you and it is your responsibility to exercise it as you would a bodily muscle so it can grow stronger day by day. I call this living by design.

Pain is a fact of life.

Pain is inevitable. It is the result of hurt or disappointment. Suffering comes from feeling powerless to stop the pain and change it. But suffering is optional. What do I mean by this?  You are not powerless with regards to your suffering. You are powerful in easing the pain and problem through your faith. God already knows how powerful and wonderfully designed you are to allow you to go through this pain and problem understanding that even through it you will still expand and grow.

There is always a lesson learned in trials. God has a bigger plan in all of this. A plan for you to work, grow and expand so there is more of you to give to those you love. You were put here for such a time as this because you have in you more than enough.

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Trust God through the Storm: Pray, Believe & Listen to His Voice

I wanted so much to wake up and discover that it was a bad dream.  “I must prepare you for the worst and explain that you should begin packing some clothes to get out of there,” the lady on the phone said to my cousin. “The Constable will be there in the morning to change the locks to your front door and you’ll no longer have access to your home.” In my mind I am thinking, “Why did she wait until the last minute to say something about this?”

What an emotional roller-coaster ride. The details were so confusing.  Then I recognized that God was not in that. God is not the author of confusion.   I knew then that my beloved cousin had been set-up.  While praying with my friend Veda about this, she suddenly said, “There’s a heavy stronghold over this situation!” “We have to praise and worship because that will break down this thing.” I began praising and worshiping God and told my cousin to do the same until she felt a release.

At 3:30 AM the following morning, the morning the order of execution of possession, I was awakened and heard a whisper, “Daughter get up and pray.” When you are led to get out of your warm bed in the middle of a restful sleep and go into a cold room to pray, do it anyway! I went into another room even without my robe because I felt the urgency to move quickly. I prayed in the Holy Ghost and worshipped God for some time and then returned to bed.

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