Holly Furtick

The Bible promises us that times of trouble will come.  John 16:33 says, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Sometimes God delivers you from a trial.  Psalm 54:7 says, “You have delivered me from all my troubles, and my eyes have looked in triumph on my foes.”

But sometimes He chooses to simply walk alongside you in the trial.  Look at this verse from Isaiah 41:10

So do not fear,for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthenyou and help you;
I will uphold youwith my righteous right hand.

Just because you prayed for deliverance and God did not answer you does not mean that He is not walking with you every step of the way.  Sometimes I think God wants me to stop praying for deliverance and start simply acknowledging His presence.  I memorized Proverbs 3:5-6 when I was 9 years old.  It has always stuck with me.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.

Whatever your situation is, know that God is not rejecting you if He does not deliver you from your trial.  It may be that He just wants you to grow closer to Him as you acknowledge Him in your situation. He promises to always be with you.

Matthew 28:20
And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Jeremiah 17:7-8
“But blessed is the one who trustsin the Lord,
    whose confidence is in him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water
    that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
    its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
    and never fails to bear fruit.”

I love this passage of scripture.  It paints such a beautiful picture of a tree who is able to withstand any difficulty.  The passage does not specify the type of tree or where the tree was planted.  The only requirement for always bearing fruit is deep roots.

When you trust in the Lord, you don’t have to worry about what is coming.  You can be confident that the God of the universe is great and He is good and He promises to be with us always.  And while he does not always deliver us from the trial, we can be confident that He will be with us through the trial.

Sometimes I can become overwhelmed when I wonder what trials our family will face in the future.  Will we all be healthy?  Will my kids grow up to love God?  My life would bear so much more fruit if I would focus more energy on digging my roots down deep, and developing my relationship with God rather than trying to tackle every issue that arises in my own strength, energies and abilities.

Let your roots grow deeper everyday, trust in the Lord and the difficulties come, you will be strong and able to withstand anything.

Everyone has someone in their life that seems to have it all together.  Often it is not a close friend or relative (because when you really get to know someone you realize that no one really has it all together).

One question that is frequently asked of me as a woman in ministry is “How do you balance everything?”  Well, the short answer is, I don’t.  My laundry piles up in my laundry room.  My kids don’t always get a full night’s sleep before school the next day.  My kindergartner often does his weekend homework on Monday morning before school.  And I certainly do not provide healthy, well-balanced meals for my family every night.  But I don’t think that balance is the key.  It is not about separating every aspect of my life and making sure everything gets equal or adequate attention.  It is about integrating everything.

As a family, we try not to separate family time and church time.  It is all family time.  Sometimes we are together at our house.  Sometimes we are together at a piano recital or a t-ball game.  Other times we are together at church.  During our Code Orange Revival, my mother offered to let my kids go and stay at her house for at week.  And while that would have been easier, it went against our whole purpose as a family… we do it together.  I want my kids to have a front row seat to see all the amazing things God is doing in and through our church (at an age appropriate level) and they cannot experience that if they are not there.  A lot of those Code Orange nights, they came only for the beginning of church and then went home with a babysitter.  But they got to meet almost all of the speakers, and they got to experience some of the worship, and they got to participate in our children’s ministry.

I am also working on being with my kids when I am with my kids.  You know what I mean by this.  I am learning (please hear me say I am learning) that I need to get my stuff done when they are at school or napping or sleeping at night or with a sitter.  The time for me to read my bible or prepare for my small group or work on my blog is not from 3-5 pm when they are waking up from naps and coming home from school.  I want to work my schedule so that I can be not only present but active with them.  They love it when I sit outside while they are playing.  I need to be with them when I am with them.

Integration can also happen in my personal life.  On the many mornings when I did not get up and have a cup of hot tea and read my bible before my kids have woken up, that doesn’t mean that my day is shot spiritually.  God wants me to integrate my relationship with Him throughout my day.  I can listen to a sermon at the gym, or while I am unloading my dishwasher.  I can pray while I am driving my car and my kids are listening to Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” for the 100th time.  I can work on scripture memory with my kids while they are eating breakfast and I am packing lunches.

I do not get this right all the time.  But I work towards integration, not balance.  Colossians 3:4 says “When Christ, who is your life, appears…”  Christ is my life.  He is not a part of my life.  And I want to live like that.

Sometimes small changes can make a huge difference.  Like how a huge ship is moved by turning the rudder just a few degrees.  Life can be like that too.  Like waking up just 15 minutes earlier could make the difference between a chaotic morning and a calm morning.

I recently re-listened to a sermon series by Pastor Craig Groeschel on the topic of Margin (the sermon series is a few years old so you’ll have to search LifeChurch.tv podcast to find it).  It was so helpful to hear his take on how to have more margin in my life whether you are talking about financial margin or even scheduling margin.

About the same time, I found this blog post through Pinterest (what did we do before Pinterest?) called 10 habits for a well run home.  I have never read this woman’s blog before but I really like this post.  She simplifies the art of creating order to very  common sense things like going to bed earlier so you can get up earlier and packing lunches and laying out clothes the night before.

I was personally challenged by the getting up earlier part.  I am working on it.

I have got to learn to focus on the things I can change, rather than the things I can’t change and so I will experience a difference in my life.