I Am Grateful

While people have trouble trusting others, many have an even more difficult time with trusting God.  Like many people, I spent the vast majority of my life having problems learning to trust others, but I never felt that way about trusting God, and little did I know that it would ever happen.  One day when I was just starting middle school, I stumbled upon two consecutive verses: ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.’ (Proverbs 3:5-6), and I took them into deep thought and told God that I would trust Him. They really spoke to my heart, and I decided to establish them as my new favorite Bible verses.  I began to live by them, and they encouraged me.

 

            In sixth and seventh grade, a little while after discovering these inspirational verses, I started having some of life’s many struggles.  I had problems with being sociable with my peers; felt a bit left-out, and started having issues at church and at home.  It impacted me negatively, and it was hard for me to comprehend why it was happening to me, and how it had happened in the first place.  At the time, all I understood was that everything happens for a reason, and I had to learn to trust God.   I had learned that despite my problems I needed to trust God that He would help me through it all and make everything right again, and as a result, I decided that Jesus was the best friend that I could ever ask for.  I was a dedicated Christian, who read the Bible and did my devotions every day. I would pray during my free time, and I learned to walk beside God and listen to what He had to say. I let Him show me where He was leading my life, and I followed His path.  

 

            Then, we left the church as I was going into the eighth grade, and we stopped going to church altogether, with some occasional visits to new churches. The days were passing by slower and slower as I stopped doing my devotions, reading my Bible, and I even got extremely annoyed whenever my mom or sister would start talking about going to church.  It was still like that as I started the ninth grade. I started having issues worse than ever before, and I had no idea how to stop them, and they kept on coming one right after the other.

 

            Around the end of ninth grade, I had so many issues that I needed to work out, and I had no idea what to do. It was at that moment when it had gotten so bad that I decided to question my faith and realize what I had been doing for the past two years. It took me a while to take advantage of the situation and to begin to guide my life back in the right direction again, but eventually I picked up my Bible, read a few devotions, and even start a few plans on my favorite Bible app.  I had to pray to God to help me in order to deal with the issues that I had thrown at me, despite my rebelling from Him.  I had learned that in order to fix a problem, broken relationship, or even to keep a relationship as successful as possible, I needed to surrender every last relationship, problem, and thought to God so He could handle it Himself. He is more powerful than anyone.  He has the willingness to forgive immediately because of Jesus’ blood that was shed on the cross, and He knows the plans that He has for me, ‘”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 a hope and a future.”(Jeremiah 29:11). It took a lot of prayer, talking with people and trusting that God would make everything fit to His will.

 

            If I had realized how abundantly trusting God would impact my life  the first moment that I saw that verse, I would’ve definitely been amazed how trusting God is so powerful.  Perhaps I could have learned how to diverge my struggles, and I would’ve known how to stay off of the road most traveled by, and continue on the one less traveled. But even though I had to wait for the big storm to come before I realized it, it was all worth the wait.  I am currently going to church, reading my Bible, as well as doing my devotions.  God has helped me through so much, and taught me to trust Him in the hardest of times, and I am so grateful that He has helped me through it all.

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Written by: F.A. from TN