faith builders

When things aren't going smoothly in our lives, that's usually when God is allowing the Hard to build our faith. Isn't that just what He does? 

The thought occurred to me recently that ever since I moved back to VA over three years ago, my life has felt like a constant upheaval process. My emotions seem to fly all over the place and my reliance on Him seems to have to be rebuilt day after day after day. I doubt and fear far, far too often. Yet even through the doubts, He has remained faithful. When I look back at different moments, I can see His hand working so very clearly. In turn, this continues to remind me how wonderful He has been to me! :) Never once in my life has He ever turned His back on me. Ever. Yet it's the Hard that makes me call on Him. When life was flowing easy, like my life before my Big Move, I didn't have much forward movement. It was more stagnant treading of water, there was action on my part, but I wasn't really going forward.

But now. Even in the ups and downs and fears and wonderments, I feel like I'm actually moving ahead. Like my faith is being built up and even when I doubt, it's simply a way for God to use to prove to me once again how much I need Him. I might only be taking baby steps, yes, but even a small bit of progress is still progress! :)

I just love how I can look back at my life and pinpoint moments where my faith grew. Where He proved Himself faithful once again when I let Him have my everything. Sometimes it's too easy for me to look at my life in the current and see only the Hard of the moment. Yet when I take even one step back and look at the bigger picture, all I can see is amazement of how far He's led me! Because when it's the Hard that He uses and your life is seemingly one Hard after another? There's nowhere for your faith to go but up, right?

So here's to the faith builders in our lives. They aren't always fun, sometimes they hurt like you wouldn't believe, yet in the end we learn to trust the heart of the Ever Faithful. What more could we ask?