1816 The Survival Guide

One day you will tell your story of how you overcame the exact thing you’re going through right now. The day will come when you look back on this season of your life and say “With God, I made it through that.”

You will survive. You will overcome. You will make it through this. And guess what honey, your story will become someone else’s survival guide.

This isn’t just about you … this is about the lives that need your example. This is about the people you don’t even know yet who will need to know you made it through so they can have the hope of making it through too.

1 Corinthians 1:9, “God will do this for he is faithful to do what he says, and he has invited you into partnership with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” God is the one who will do it, but the story you’ll come out of this with is how you’ll work in partnership with Jesus. Your story will become a survival guide … and it will point straight to Jesus because he’s the only way you’re getting through!

Remember that scripture in Genesis 50:20 “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”

What was intended for harm in your life will not harm you forever. You will survive and you will thrive again on the other side. Then everything you went through will be used to save others. They will not be hopeless because your story will be a beacon of hope.

Don’t you understand you have been trusted with this hardship to reveal God’s glory in the details and His faithfulness in the darkness. If you’re on the other side of the darkness now, look back. Someone is standing in that darkness today who needs the example of your light. A light that points to the only true help there is … Jesus!

If you battled infertility, there’s a desperate woman yearning for a baby who needs to know you too battled and you made it through. She needs to know how God worked everything together for good.

If you survived an ugly divorce, there’s a family today being torn apart by the fighting and words that cut like a knife. They need to know it doesn’t have to be this way. God is the source of peace in that storm.

If you were once pacing the floors wondering how on earth you were going to make it through those hard years with your wayward son or daughter, and now that child is an adult making their way in the world successfully despite their wreckless path to get there, let me tell you there’s a mama who needs to know she’s not the screw up of all screw ups and she’s not alone in this. They need to know how God can use everything that was so totally wrong and use it for something right.

What you went through cannot be wasted. Use it for good now. If you’re on the other side, use your story to help someone else. You have a story of God doing things only he could do … a story of pieces eventually coming together … a story of healing and redemption … a story of survival and now thriving … who is your story helping now?

And if you’re not yet there, let me share some light with you because I know what it’s like to feel like God isn’t doing a darn thing in response to your prayers. I know what it feels like to see everything keep getting worse. I know what it feels like to have to pick yourself up to try and live another day when everything in you just wants to give up.

And here’s what I can tell you on the semi-sorta other side of that … God is doing things you cannot see right now. He is working behind the scenes and in unknown places. He is making paths in those deep trenches of darkness, and those paths lead to light. But you can’t see him working right now. You can’t see what he’s doing.

God’s power is not dependent upon your sight. He doesn’t need you to SEE what he’s doing for it to be done. He doesn’t need you to know about the details of when and how to make it all come together. In fact what I now realize is God had to keep me in the dark about what he has been doing because I would get in the way.

Sometimes I wanted to fix the problem so bad I only make it worse. So God hides from me the work he is doing to keep me from getting in the middle of it and screwing it up.

That’s humbling. God doesn’t need me to fix it … He needs me to get out of the way and let him work. So he removes me from the situation, makes it impossible for me to continue under my own power, then he goes to work in the mystery of the unknown doing what only he could do to heal, restore, and repair.

I can’t tell you HOW God did it. But I can tell you WHEN God did it. He did it when it felt like things were only getting worse. He did it when there was nothing I could do to change the situation. He did it when it looked hopeless. That’s when he has been working. He has been working in that darkness and guess what … God doesn’t need a flashlight so when he’s working in the darkness, you can’t see it!

News Flash: God doesn’t need you to see what he’s doing for Him to do it.

Unlike us sometimes when we want an audience for our good works. We look over our shoulder to make sure someone is watching, heck someone better be videoing as I do something awesome to capture this. Nahhhh, God doesn’t need an audience. He does his work in the mystery. In the unseen and misunderstood.

God doesn’t announce “hey y’all might wanna watch this because I’m getting ready to do something mega big over here!” He doesn’t rent out billboards with big arrows that show us exactly where he is working. He just says “If you prayed about it, I’m working on it. If you asked, I’m answering. If you knocked, I’m opening. If you’re seeking, you will find.” (Luke 11: 9-10)

What’s required of you now is faith to believe God is working today, even when you still have no answers. Hope that there will be change, even though there’s no evidence of that change today.

I can tell you this with confidence because I’ve personally experienced it. God IS working whether you see evidence of it today or not. Change is happening regardless if it feels like anything is changing. Even when it feels like everything is getting worse, God is working in the unseen doing things you cannot comprehend.

One day you’ll look back and see GOD WAS WORKING. He was doing things you could not see. He was responding to your every prayer. He was making a way where there was no way. And he didn’t need you in the middle of it, so he kept you in the dark so he could do his best work!

All that intended harm will indeed be used for good. The harm that threatened me and my family will be used for good in your family. And the harm that threatened you and your family will be used for good in the lives of others.

With God, you will overcome this. You will make it through. Things won’t always be the way they are today. You will one day stand on top of that tall mountain after the exhausting climb and you will look back to see how far you’ve come and all God was doing on the journey. Your perspective on life will be different. Then, you can reach out your hand and help someone else on their climb. You can tell them they’re almost there. You can tell them they WILL make it. Why? Because YOU did.

And your story becomes someone else’s survival guide. Everything you went through and everything you’re going through now will be used for good. God will receive the glory because you will have a story to share of all he did while you couldn’t see him working.

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