Hang on! Your Redeemer Lives!

So the clouds get darker from multiple angles.  My family is going through yet another round of drama where loving communication and forgiveness is absent. More whirlwind of talk from friends  about their husbands, kids, and or new boyfriends gets a little tough to take all at once lately.  Couple things with my job little unsettling as well too.  The wind is getting stronger, and what is that country song... Oh yeah from Garth Brooks...(And) The Thunder Rolls :)

This is real life.  Sometimes you go through great times and then you go through junk, mud, swamps, deserts, and hurricanes or it feels like it :)  We all know about that.  Sometimes, we can't even see the hand in front of our faces it is so dark.  Everything in life is in an upheaval and there seems to be no way out and the enemy is closing in.  Might be all kinds of things from a vindictive boss, bill collectors, or even abandonment of close family member or friend.

Right now, I know that is hard to see. I may even still have days where I cry. But there is this thing in my heart that just KNOWS God is with me.  I don't know how to describe it.  It doesn't take away my struggles, it doesn't make the world a peachy place, but I just KNOW He is there and He loves me.  Even though every road sign right now is saying somethings else or maybe even maybe the opposite according to the world's way of thinking.

Is it hard to have faith at times like this? Yes! But what is faith? Faith is believing in the unseen. Faith is trusting when you can't see the outcome.  This family thing right now is especially hard, because there are kids involved and I really have no idea how long this will go on.  It could continue for way longer even years!  I have 2 choices, I can go "oh crap this is going to be awful" and shrivel up.  OR I can trust in the living God that has brought me through so much and say "I trust God's got it covered and He loves my family more than even I do"

I used to sit in church and people would bring up Job as this amazing example of someone that suffered so much and had amazing faith.  Then I would go through some tough times and read Job and think "Man God wasn't comforting at all! He just let this poor guy go through the worst things ever and then He just told him 'suck it up I'm God'"  But I was only looking at the story through cloudy eyes.  I totally missed Job's responses showing his faith and trust, and what a testament that was to what a loving and kind spirit God is.

• In Job 13:15 Job says: "Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him;" NIV

• Job 16:19-21 He says : " Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high.
   My intercessor is my friend
  as my eyes pour out tears to God;
   on behalf of a man he pleads with God
  as one pleads for a friend." NIV

• He says even more in Job 19:25: "I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth." NIV

He even talks about his intimate friendship with God.  These words are not from a man that believes that God is cruel and mean and hates him, like a distant peon. These words are from a man that knows His loving, just, intercessor, and intimate friend.  He knows that no matter how bad it looks and what misery he must go through his God and Friend is totally trustworthy! He still struggles and still wants and answer for his pain, but above all, he KNOWS in his heart God loves him and is working things out in the ultimate end for his best.

Who says "yeah, even if he kills me I will hope in Him"  Do you have one friend or even family member on this planet that you trust that much? He knew even if he died and never saw his hope fulfilled in his life that in the eternal scheme of things His Redeemer Lives!

Now that is some kind of testimony! Don't you think? I pray so hard that any of you readying this KNOW God in your heart like this. That even like me or even like Job through Really rough times you can say "I choose to believe that MY REDEEMER LIVES!" and truly KNOW He loves you and that all this stuff is only momentary in the whole plan of salvation for You and the ones you love.

Tonight, I stepped out of my mom and step dad's house feeling the tension in the air behind me, and I saw a rainbow in the sky through the rain pouring down.  As if God is saying to me, "Hang in there Kid! I promise I am with you. I got this!" And His loving hand comforts my heart again this week.

It may be dark you may not be able to see your hand in front of your face, but God has not forgotten you! He see's your pain and struggles and will be with you through it all. Hang On for You Will KNOW your Redeemer lives!