Several years ago my morning walk became a very special time to for me. I have a mile marked out and I walk to that electric pole that is marked and walk back to my home. I live in rural America and the road I walk on is a dirt and gravel road. A very sacred dirt road. I have grown a lot on this road. I have cried on this road in desperation when my marriage was falling apart, when my kids were making bad choices, when I just struggled to get through the day at work. I have walked on this road in confusion and full of questions of why my life was so hard. I have walked on this road full of joy. I have walked this road empty and full, happy and sad, encouraged and discouraged, full of hope and full of fear.  I have walked on this dirt road many times and have engaged in prayer and conversation with the Lord. I have received many answers to my many questions on this road and have also accepted God’s silence. This dirt road has been my grace on many occasions. If you do not spend time with the Lord every day I highly encourage it. If you can and are able to get outside and go for a walk with Him I encourage that all the more. If for some reason you are not able to go for a walk with Jesus, then at least sit by a window or open door and look outside. There is much comfort being outside among His creation or at least being able to see a tree sway with the rhythms of the wind.

While on my usual walk with the Lord this morning, I heard these words in my heart, “hold on, have faith, and believe”. Three simple commands and yet wrap so much up into them. Hold on. That one is hard. When the storm of life is raging and winds are blowing you off your feet and then the thunder clouds roll in and send torrential rains pouring down it is easy to get swept away from that solid foundation you thought you so firmly stood on. Just hold on. Hard times come but they also go. Hold on.

As I just shared more and more of my heart with the Lord, my worries and my fears, I was reminded that we are to live by faith. Faith in Him, and only Him. He is so real.  Even though He may be unseen He is more real than what we can see.  These words were seeds sowed deep in my heart. As Believers, we are to see by faith and not by our physical sight. Lately,  I have really been looking around and being very discouraged by what I am going through as well as what I see others going through. Struggles, trials, tribulations, unanswered prayers, hurting people, bad news, sickness, financial difficulty …the list just goes on and on. I was beginning to sink into the dark abyss of discouragement because I struggle to wrap my mind around the “why” behind all that I was going through and what I see going on around me. That’s the problem. I’m looking around me instead of looking up. I’m believing more of what I was seeing and not what I really believe even though it is unseen. We must hold on and we must have faith.

Believe. When we get caught up looking at what is going on around us instead of keeping our eyes in the unchanging God, we can get oppressed and depressed. Then how are we to go on? How are we to live this life when our focus is on the troubles and not the truth?  How can we share the awesome things that God has done in our lives if we can barely keep our head up?   We must believe that God is working and weaving things in our favor even as we speak. Regardless of what we see, we have to believe that the unseen hand of God is holding us when we feel like we are falling apart. Believing is knowing without having to see with our own eyes.

Lord help me to hold on, help me to have faith and Lord help me to believe.