*Ding*

I picked up my phone and there it was: a text from a friend that simply quoted Joshua 1:9. “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

The text message came out of the blue from a friend that I had not heard from in many months. He told me that he was praying for someone else, but the Holy Spirit told him that this verse was for me, and it could not have come at a better time.

“Do not be dismayed.”

With both my husband and I facing health challenges as well as career changes, we have had to choose many times a day to trust God, that He knows what He is doing and that He is working things out. Discouragement is a temptation, but we choose hope.

In the middle of this season, God has reminded me in a powerful way of His calling on my life to ministry and has sent many little reminders along the way that He is up to something; that He is planning something and that soon He will draw back the curtains and we will see that what He has been doing was beautiful and worth it.

Unfortunately, in the season, we don’t get a backstage pass. Steven Furtick says that we live life forward, but we only understand it in reverse. I believe that in heaven we will all have a big light bulb moment when we realize the depth of God’s activity throughout the journey. Until then, we trust. We trust His love for us, we trust His power, and we trust His timing.

Are you walking through a season right now that is hard to understand? Do you struggle to see how God will provide for you? Go back to His word, read Joshua 1:9. Be strong. Be courageous. Do not be dismayed. Why? Because the Lord is with you. He never left, and He never will. That’s reason enough to choose to trust Him today!