God are you with me in my struggle?

“God are you with me in my struggle?” is what Misty Phillip asked God. Now she shares what her experiences were with us in today’s Livin’ Lively with Laine blog.

I experienced many struggles from an early age. And then I thought when I became a believer that somehow life was going to be so much more amazing and that I wouldn’t have struggles. And anybody who reads the Bible knows that Jesus said that in this world, we will have tribulation, not we might have tribulation. And part of the Believers Walk is going through trials and tribulations and it is those trials and tribulations that conform us to the image of Christ and make us more like him when we surrender and submit our lives to Him.

It’s hard, though, isn’t it? I mean, in the midst of the struggle, I mean, it is hard to go, Okay, God, you’re curating something beautiful out of this. And that is why it is a struggle because I think any of us with a faith root system, we know God is there. But sometimes we don’t feel like it, do we? Yeah, it can definitely be a challenge. But for me, I know that when I was going through some really serious struggles as a young wife and a mother, the only thing that got me through those struggles was my lifeline to the Word of God. And it was those times that God really poured into me that then I was able to pour that back out on the pages of the struggle is real, but so is God.

One particular season that I was referencing, as a new mom, I was on bed rest with my youngest son for almost my entire pregnancy. I had two boys that I was homeschooling, one of which had grand mal seizures as a baby and profound special needs. At the same time, we lived next door to my husband’s parents, who both had brain tumors. So in that time, my husband lost his job. It was literally like one major thing after another. And that is just in a short couple of years span. It was exhausting. And I was like God, why not question him? Like, why is this happening? But what can I do? 

You know, just being in His word, just searching for truth. And that’s where I learned that we all have struggles, right? Sometimes they’re small struggles, sometimes they’re big struggles, your struggles are going to be different than my struggles. You know, other struggles I experienced in the past, I’ve lost babies had a stillborn child with trisomy 18, experienced a lot of death and grief in my family. I was in rebellion as a young person and did all the wrong things before.

God radically changed my life. 

But in seasons I was truly walking in darkness, and God radically pulled me out of that. So all of those struggles, you may not have my struggles but at some level, we all struggle, whether it’s tension within our family, a job loss, or the death of a loved one. And so how we navigate those trials is what I think is so important. 

I think it’s okay for us to take our questions to God, and to ask him why we just can’t get stuck in the why we have to surrender and bow our knees to him and pick up that cross and follow Him. And it’s not always easy. But when we do that we can rest under his sovereign hand. You know, and as you’re talking, we see these are just amazing stories of true struggles. You know, I feel struggles are kind of universal, and they all are equal. I mean, what may be a struggle for you might necessarily be a greater struggle for someone else. I mean, struggles or struggles is all I’m getting to. I don’t think we need to have opinions or measurements of it. If someone’s hurting then that’s my measurement. If you’re hurting if you’re in grief or if you’re struggling over something that you could not prevent that, man, those are tough times. 

And you do wonder like you said, why not? Why God, but why? Why? What am I going to do on it? God? Tell us a little bit how your devotion or your Bible study came about through these struggles. Yeah. So when my oldest son went to college, I had homeschooled my boys and thought I was just going to homeschool my boys and then be a grandma. And I realized very quickly, if I didn’t find something else to do with my time that I would drive my boys absolutely crazy. 

And so I began praying and asking God and seeking Him for the next step in my life. And when my son was in college, he had signed up for a bike race. It’s called the Ms. 150. It goes from Houston to Austin. And he was working full time and going to school full time, and he wasn’t getting those rides in. And so as a good mom, I was like, come on, son. I’ll go for a ride with you. 

Well, long story short, I wasn’t wearing a helmet that day. And I had a terrible bike accident that I snapped both of my arms after over the end on my bike, and I didn’t have that helmet. So I put my arms out, you know, to break my fall. And for the next year, I couldn’t do anything as my arms healed. 

And God had me sit. And over that time, He just spoke his love over me. And then I realized, I’m the older woman, and that I needed to take the lessons that God was sharing with me, and share them with others. So I went to my husband. And I said, I really feel like I’m called to write a Bible study. And he said, I think you’re right. And I said, I think I should write it about overcoming. And he said, Maybe that’s your life story you absolutely do. 

So the first thing I did was I got into the Greek. And I started to look at every reference of the word overcome in the Bible. And really, in one sitting, God gave me the structure of the Bible study. We went to church the next day, and the pastor was preaching from Joshua, about being strong and courageous. And my family knew the music that day was Susan Ashton, who was a contemporary Christian singer in the 90s, who, when I first got saved, that’s all I listened to. And she has the song about the Spirit moving us that we can’t go from one place to the other, unless the spirit moves us. And my family knew in that moment that God was anointing me to write this study, I can’t even explain it to you. But they all looked at me. And they knew.

I’m so glad, because it took me three years to write that study. And things don’t always work out the way we think or in the timing that we think that they are. But it did launch at number one on Amazon. And I have won a Golden scroll award for it. And God has truly just blessed my meager efforts of taking people from Genesis to Revelation, and showing them that God has not left us alone that he has promises to his overcomers.

Here are a couple of keys for you today that would to help transform you today. 

1. So the first thing is you have to be in the Word, you have to be in the word so that the word is it gets inside of you so that you can use that word as a weapon. That’s what God says it’s the sword of the Spirit. And so every time Jesus was tempted, He spoke back to Satan with the Word of God, if we don’t have that word of God in us, we can’t use it as a weapon. So that’s first and foremost, we have to be in the Word. 
2. And then second of all, Praise is a weapon. You know, when I am struggling, I crank my praise music up, I go for a walk, get out in God’s creation. And then I would just say a heart of gratitude. Like every day that we wake up is a gift from God. And so if we can just thank him even in the midst of our difficult situation. I think that he can work in ways when our heart is open and receptive and we have a heart have gratitude because we have to keep our eyes on eternity, knowing that this is a temporary situation that we have here on earth, and that if we can keep our eyes fixed on eternity, everything that we go through here will pale in comparison to the amazing glory that we will receive. And heaven. 
3. One of the best features in my study is that you can have the daily affirmations. And so I basically instead of having them, you know, say something worldly about themselves, like I’m empowered, and I can do these things. It’s really about taking the Scripture and applying the scripture to your life. So I’ll use that example. I can do all things not I can do all things. But I can do all things with the strength of Christ. And so it’s just taking the scriptures and really claiming those promises. And if you were in the struggle, I would just encourage you to grab that studying some friends and go through it together. And it’s powerful. I love to say healing is better, we do it together. And I think that is so powerful. And I’m going to also touch really quickly on the praise music very dear to my heart, I love to sing literally out my backyard many days with my Pandora way. You know, there’s something about when I’m down or upset, and I get some praise, music going. Literally the joy of the Lord just touches me. And I like to say mystery, and I’m sure you would do that. Anytime we get in the presence of God, whether it’s his word, whether in prayer or praise, we don’t leave the same, do we? That’s right. We never leave the same. The word is alive and active and being in his presence. 

Just a touch from Jesus can radically change everything.