worship in the waves

I am sure a lot of us have all been to the beach and went out and jumped a few waves but also have gotten taken down by a wave, swallowed a bunch of water, and felt like you were never going to come back up... it happens. In our own lives, sometimes what we are going through can feel like we are jumping waves; we are on top of the world gliding through, everything is perfect then BOOM we get taken under. The question we must ask ourselves is not when will the waves crash over me, but how will I respond when they begin to crash? At times it feels as if you can't get up, you are getting hit with one thing on top of the other; just like that saying: "When it rains, it pours." Moments like this can make us feel lost, hopeless, vulnerable to sin and temptation, and like we can't keep our heads above water long enough to come up and breath again. Storms of life get us down and draw us from God and we lose focus of Him and choose to focus on the waves. We begin to think "How can a God who loves me so much let me drown in life like this?" The last thing we want to do is go to God and pray about our situation; we run from Him. The God who is your rescue when the waves are crashing over and the God who stands high on the lifeguard tower seeing it all... we STILL run.

It's normal, we all do it at times but I want to remind you that God understands you're circumstances. Yes, there will be moments we will feel like God is way far off in the distance but these might be the moments He desires; for us to surrender it all to Him. The type of strength to be able to say "my God is bigger than this" is strength that is solely found in one source and that is Jesus. It isn't found in ourselves or any other thing or place we turn to. He longs for us to lift up our eyes and worship in our weariness. Your weakness is a weapon! When we fix our focus on Jesus our whole perspective of our struggle changes. We see beauty in the ashes; we see far past the current conditions. We might have to force the words out despite of how we feel because sometimes we have to grab hold of what we know. Know God sees your right where you are, know He is holding your hand through it, and know you will come out better than ever because sometimes you won't feel it. Coming up from the waves can be a painful process but you have to trust that God is leading you to such a better place. Instead of getting angry at God, throw your hands up and praise Him. Worship through your worry, fear, and exhaustion. God wants you to find your voice in the midst of your trials.

Ground you faith in God's goodness so that when the waves crash over you, you can handle them. Our faith in Him and His promises must be put to work all the time, not just when things are going well and not just when when we are facing troubles. He is good all the time. He is the God of the storm and is to be glorified as the God who is at work in the midst of it.

Start asking God "what is this trying to teach me?" instead of "why is this happening to me?" because often the circumstances we ask God to change are the circumstances He is using to change us.

Persevere. Don't give up. Keep your eyes on Him.

xoxo, hallie