When God Shows Up: Real Stories of FaithSample

Macy*

"...But when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. 'Save me, Lord!' he shouted. Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. 'You have so little faith,' Jesus said. 'Why did you doubt me?'" Matthew 14:30-31, NLT

We met Valerie in an earlier story. Macy’s story has a similar beginning. Macy’s own struggles with addiction began following the death of her father, who also battled drug addiction. But by the time her daughter was born, Macy knew that her life needed to change. She enrolled in a rehab program and was waiting to begin when tragedy struck. Her daughter passed away in a house fire.

At that point, Macy says, “I didn’t care what happened to me. I hit the streets hard. I didn’t care if I died.” While she was incarcerated, she met Stand in the Gap’s Rhonda Bear, who described Macy at that time as “a shell, unresponsive, without emotion, and empty.” But what Macy saw when she looked at Rhonda was quite different. “She was the first person to really look at me and see me.”

When we face storms, where we are looking matters. Peter was walking on water until “he saw the strong wind and the waves.” Macy, on the other hand, was drowning in her grief until Rhonda led her to Jesus. Because of Rhonda’s influence, Macy says, “God got a hold of me. He offered me redemption from my pain, from my sadness, and from my grief.”

After Macy was released, Rhonda formed a Stand in the Gap family around her. Macy says, “They prayed for me. They stood in intercession for me. They cried with me. They were who I could talk to and be honest with. They changed me.

“A big thing the enemy tried to do in my life was make me feel isolated and make me feel like I was the only one. But my Stand in the Gap team helped change that. They made me feel like I was part of something. They weren’t standing on top and pulling me up; we were all standing together.”

Today, Macy owns a catering business that employs women rebuilding their lives and a non-profit that helps fire victims. Out of her tragedy and grief, God has given Macy a life of purpose.

Imagine yourself on the waves, walking. Where is your focus? What are you looking at? Even as you are walking on water, are you tempted to doubt?

*Name changed to protect privacy