I have seen this video a few times and each time I am brought to tears. It is the story of faith, God’s love, grace, blessings and a miracle. This family talks about the need for their daughter to have a heart transplant and how prayer and God is getting them through it all. God performs miracles every day, and we are blessed by those miracles! God is good, all the time!
Archives For Faith
Today I just wanted to take a minute and share some quotes I really like. Maybe you have a prayer journal that you can write them in or put one on an index card on your mirror to remember it. Hope you enjoy! 
“When ordinary people pray, extraordinary things can happen.” Brian Houston
“Your prayer for someone may or may not change them, but it always changes YOU.” Craig Groeschel
“All people end up somewhere in life, but few end up there on purpose.” Craig Groeschel
“Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.” Mother Teresa
“Pray; and let God worry.” Martin Luther
“For we live by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7 (NIV)
“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. Mark 11:22 (NIV)
Sometimes when we are praying about something all God wants is for us to simply say “okay” and take that leap of faith! This has been a recurring truth not just for me but people in my family as well. Last year when my brother was out of work we were all praying every day for doors to open. Of course we wanted them to open up somewhere close to where we all were though. Once my brother said “okay God, where ever you want me to go” and stepped out in faith our prayers were answered. Now there are several prayer requests that are on my heart, my dad needing a job, my brother-in-law needing a job, not to mention many other things that we are praying for as well. God has been continually laying on my heart the truth that I must step out in faith first and He will care for the rest. His plans are better than I could ever plan for myself. He knows what is best for me. All I need to do is trust Him, take a leap of faith and say “okay God” and whatever he puts before me will be more amazing than I had thought!
“I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.” Psalm 34:4 (NIV) 
“Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?” Luke 12:25 (NIV)
I believe that we all have specific struggles that are harder for ourselves than they might be for other people. Certain things are just not a struggle for some people and I think that we all have certain struggles so that it causes us to lean on God more, trust Him and have faith. As many of you know from earlier blog posts I struggle with anxiety/worry. I believe this is my hurdle that I am supposed to over come with God’s help. To be honest there are some days or weeks that are great, it feels like it isn’t even work. But then there are other days when it feels like I am right back at the beginning before I ever even realized this was my struggle, having anxiety and worrying over everything. I pray pretty much every day that God will take this struggle away and heal me of it. I keep praying and waiting. Last night though God brought something to my attention. Before He will heal me of this I first have to realize that I have to give everything to God and believe in His power, authority and plan for my life. See, here was my problem… when there would be something that I would start to worry about my husband would tell me to pray about it and my response would be… of course I’ll pray, but it may not be in God’s plan. What I kept telling myself was that I would pray about the situation but it didn’t mean that the horrible wasn’t still God’s plan. I realized last night that deep down I was never truly letting it go and giving it to Him. I was almost afraid that if I did then that would mean the bad would have to happen, almost like He would test me instantly of my faith by making the worst occur. I know this is not how He works, I know that because I put my faith in Him does not mean that the worst will automatically happen to test my faith, yet for some reason I was telling myself it was. This is what it came down to last night when God was opening my eyes… I can not change anything by worrying or having anxiety, I am only hurting myself. When I give my fears to Him and truly give them up then He will give me peace and the strength to get through anything that comes my way. Good and bad will happen, that is just part of life, but when I live in peace and faith in God then I will be able to face any circumstance head on. And most important (for me)… God will not make my worst nightmares come true once I give it all to Him, He loves me beyond understanding so if something bad happens He will carry me through!
“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” Romans 12:12 (NIV) 
“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10 (NIV)
As you might have noticed I did not get a new post up yesterday. Lets just say that things have been hitting our family head on the past few days. Over the weekend my husbands grandpa (or as we all called him papa) passed away from a battle with cancer. It is never easy to lose a loved one no matter the case. I have known papa going on seven years now and was able to truly cherish having him in my life. He always made me feel like one of his own grand kids and for that I was always grateful. Like I said at the beginning though, things have been hitting us hard. As we have been trying to cope with the news of papa we also found out that my dad lost his job. Of course no one saw it coming and yet here it happened. I honestly can say that I stopped for a minute and thought to myself, okay, thats enough with the bad news. I know that these kind of weeks or even what may seem like months have hit more people than just our family, but truthfully when you are the one going through it, it never seems that way. When the difficult situations keep piling on I know that God is just waiting for me to turn to Him. Because here is the beauty in these difficult situations…. papa is no longer in pain and is in Heaven as we speak, his memory will live on with us all, and God has a job out there for my dad one that surpasses the last place that he was at, a job that will be more than just a pay check to him. Through pain, confusion, joy and happiness God is there, He never leaves!
