Playing Through the Pain: Trust & RestSample

God is faithful. No matter what, His promises are true.

He promised me from the beginning of my life to “never leave me or forsake me.” He is in control. Why is it that I find myself in certain moments trying to take back the control? As if God isn’t completely capable of handling all that is happening in my life. But I know the truth, He is more than capable for me and for you. Capable to lead us to become all that He designed us to be.

But what about those moments we experience where it seems impossible to press forward? 

Times where disaster seems to strike, and we wonder how will we ever make it?

Can you imagine what it was like for me to stand in front of my daughter’s casket...while knowing that I was prepared and in shape for this because I had already buried my wife?

And while I stood there at my daughter’s gravesite, I heard God’s voice say to my heart, “Bless the Lord at ALL TIMES.”

“All times?” I thought to myself ambivalently.  

• Have you ever experienced a moment where you wondered how you could ever move forward? 


• Have you ever thought that you might not be able to continue amidst all of the adversity you’re facing? 


• Have you ever been so overwhelmed that you didn’t know what to do?

The promise from Psalms 34 is that when we praise the Lord ‘at all times’ and seek Him even when the personal process of transformation has us feeling down, God will hear us and deliver us from our troubles. 

Understand that sometimes what God sees and what we see as deliverance are starkly different, yet God’s purposes are perfect. 

My hope is that these verses of scripture will be the encouragement you need to continue to follow or to begin to follow Jesus in the midst of what may feel like a total disaster.  

“For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him.” Philippians 2:13 (NLT)

“A person may have many ideas concerning God’s plan for his life, but only the designs of his purpose will succeed in the end.” Proverbs 19:21 (TPT)

“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT)

Now then, LISTEN to God speak over you through the written words of David.