It Will Be All Right

**You can listen to this post on my podcast here.

Sometimes I forget who God is.
I get my focus on the frailties of humanity, the sin of this world, and my own brokenness.
The weight of that focus starts crushing my spirit.
All the bad news is just too heavy.
My hope begins to fade as I watch our world making horrible, painful mistakes.

But God comes again to the table of my heart.

As we sit together He reminds me that greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world.
He reminds me that there are no limits on His influence or power.
He reminds me that miracles are everywhere.
He reminds me to focus on Him.
He has shoulders strong enough to carry the burden of our world.
He reminds me that hope is never lost if we let Him lead the way.
He reminds me to keep focusing on Him because He is the answer.
He reminds me that my little prayers I pray in my little house for people I don’t even know
are powerful once they are placed in His hands.
He reminds me that the faith I have in His power can change the world.
He reminds me that He loves me personally.
He reminds me that He sees me.
He reminds me to not be afraid because He is with me this very moment.
He reminds me not to be disheartened or dismayed because HE is my God.
He reminds me that He personally will strengthen me, help me, and uphold me with HIS righteous hand.

My focus on my self, my brokenness, my failure
and my focus on the heartbreak and chaos of our world brings me
to a crushed, terrified, completely hopeless place. It robs my strength, my spark, and my light.
That focus stops me from serving and from taking action.
It robs my peace within my heart but also peace for my safety, my children’s safety and the safety of each individual in our world.
This focus is where the devil wants me to stay. He loves this place.
And me staying here gives him the control he desires.

But I have the living, Holy Spirit dwelling within my heart.
His whisper gets louder as I begin to hear His truth calling.
As I pivot my attention to focus only on this whisper, everything changes.

Friends, the above is the conversation I am having with God right this moment.
This is how God renews my mind. I wrote this while He is actually at the table of my heart.
If you ever wonder how to renew your mind, how to have peace, how to walk with God,
then I pray my words create a clear picture of how this can be done.

This world and my own brokenness scare me.
I have been in tears many times over what is happening in the world,
and also in tears about my own issues.

But I really do imagine God lovingly pulling up a chair to the table of my heart.
We meet there and we talk together. I share my burden.
He answers with scripture and principals that He has placed there over the years.

This is a choice I had to make. I had to invite Him to my table.
I had to choose to pivot my focus from fear and despair and on purpose focus on the living God.

At the beginning of the post, I really was scared. The world scares me.
The chaos and the violence scare me.
I was also discouraged. I as a human am so broken.
I don’t have the wisdom to heal and fix or even identify all my broken places and how to fix them.

At this moment right now, after just now having this “meeting” at the table of my heart, I am
refreshed, renewed with hope, and strengthened.
I have written down word for word how God got me from point A to point B.
From fear and despair to peace, hope and trust.

Nothing changed around me.
All my circumstances are the same.
All the world’s circumstances are the same.
I am the same. God is the same.

But my mind is different.
I hope that you see the power that is unleashed when we choose God as our truth and source of hope.

If I had not chosen to pivot my focus then all the above promises from God would have just sat there.

Last night God was whispering to me to come to Him in prayer.
I said goodnight but did not spend time with Him.

This morning His whisper continued.

So I sat in my chair (bad knees) with my head bowed and we just talked. It was messy. I felt awkward.
But I have learned He doesn’t care about that. God just wants my heart and my dependence.

Among many things, I asked Him to please guide me today. I told Him I don’t want anything He doesn’t want.
I told Him that whatever He has me do I will keep lifting Him up as the answer.
I told Him I will always try to point people to a relationship with Him.

I ended my prayer.

That is when I started writing this. I realized I was forgetting who God is.
That is when God pulled up His chair to the table of my heart.

Friend, I hope you can see the beautiful love of our Heavenly Father.
When you claim His promises and let Him use them to meet your needs, everything changes.
It is not about circumstances changing, although they often do, it is about our perspective changing.

His word is like a feast spread out upon the table.
He makes it all available to us.

God has the wisdom and power to make our life new,
even if our circumstances remain the same.
He can transform the heart to have joy,
even in the midst of sorrow.

He is good.
He loves us as much as He loves His Son, Jesus. The Bible says so.
We are going to be ok.
Even if terrible things happen, God brings a peace that passes all understanding.
We just need to choose it.

I would like to share my song “You Are Mine” with you.
I wrote it during a time when I had similar feelings as this post.
I pray it is a comfort to you.

Lastly, if you benefit from seeing this “picture” of God meeting you at the table of your heart,
you may enjoy another post I wrote titled, “At His Table.”  You can find it HERE.