Walk In Faith

     Walking in faith is hard. 

    At the beginning of this year, my husband and I sat down and mapped out how we wanted the year to go. Goals, hopes, plans that we really thought were going to be for us. We started off 2025 with so much hope in ourselves. 

    8 months into this year I can tell you, not a single thing worked out the way we planned for it to. This year has been the hardest year we've had in our almost 7 years of marriage. So many things happening at once, so many hardships, so much fear of the unknown. 

    There's a Bible verse that says to rejoice in our sufferings and I've always been like "...yeah okay, let me just be so happy that life sucks right now." It wasn't until this year that I really understood what it meant to have joy during hardships. It doesn't mean to be happy all the time, but it does mean to praise God through it and know that in this, God has a plan and is helping us grow into who we are supposed to be in Him. 

    I'm gonna be honest right now, there is a big uncertainty over the future of our family and where God is leading us. But even through that uncertainty, we have grown in way more important ways than what I could've ever thought. God has been so good to us this year... even though life sucks. 

    This morning I sat in Jeremiah 29:11 " For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

    A bit of Bible backstory here, this verse was written to the Israelites in exile. It was a very unsure and hard time for them. God told them this verse to encourage them, but its important to know the context. The Israelites were in exile for 70 years. The Lord told them it would not be a quick return back to Jerusalem, but there WOULD be a return.(vs 10) Jeremiah 29:11 is pretty well known, but know that this verse is not a promise of instant relief, but a message of hope and God's good plan over His people.

    God has a future and a hope for His people even when they suffer in exile or even when they hurt under deserved discipline. It is the devils deception to rob God's people of their sense of His future and hope for them. God still walked with the Israelites even in exile. God is walking with us in our own hardships! Do not listen to lies from the devil, but plant yourself in truth. Know that we serve a good God and that his ultimate will for our lives is so so much better than what we could ever plan for ourselves. 

    Walk in Faith, even when it's hard, even when it's messy, even when you don't feel like it. When you don't know what else to do... Praise God!! Praise God friends, for our hardships because God knows what He's doing in us, even when we don't see it. His plans over ours. 

    Walk in faith and and trust in God... and know that we serve a good God.

                                                           Your Friend,

                                                                AlliJean