It’s difficult to find rest when our lives appear to be in disarray. When the place we thought as safe, begins to take on water. When it’s too dark to see any signs of hope. When there are more reasons to worry than to trust. These moments can be discouraging — when we look at life and don’t see the pretty picture we hoped/believed for. It can seem like Jesus doesn’t care because we feel that He’s silent. But His silence, peace, and rest is not indifference — it’s trust. He knows that one bad picture doesn’t undo an entire story. Jesus has a way of refining even the worst of circumstances through His grace and power. It may not look picture perfect now, but the story isn’t finished yet.

With everything we face at times, it can feel overwhelming. Life can be overwhelming. Life can be painful. However, the solution isn’t to ignore it. The solution is to acknowledge that the difficulties are real, but God is stronger. And the easiest way to overcome feelings that seem overwhelming, is to focus on the times God delivered us from other times that felt insurmountable. It may seem like it’s too much to handle, as if we can’t deal. But as God has proven time and time again — with Him, we CAN deal.

There are times when we think we should feel connected with Jesus, but we feel disconnected. Because of all we’re doing for Him, we expect to feel close… but we still feel distant. Why? More often than not, it isn’t that we’ve lost connection with Him, it’s just that we’ve become so busy trying to check boxes that we’ve bogged down the connection and weakened the signal.

Life is busy. It’s full of things to do, reasons to worry, and problems to solve. We tend to get caught up in doing it all. Many of us even feel as if the more we’re doing, the more holy we are. But busyness does not equate holiness. In fact, the more tired we are from overexerting ourselves while trying to handle things we aren’t supposed to handle alone, the more we stray away from the way Jesus truly intended for it to be. Religion may say that the busier we are, the holier we are; however, Jesus never did. Instead, He volunteered Himself and said — when it seems to be too much to handle alone, pass it off to me.

The last year and a half has brought a lot of reasons to fear. Uncertainty, questions, unusual circumstances. The argument has been, “If you have faith, you’ll do this,” or, “If you have wisdom, you’ll do that.” However, as followers of Jesus, it’s not about having to choose between faith or wisdom. It’s about understanding that they work together.

The voice of fear is loud. The reasons to fear are innumerable. But the reasons to be confident are greater. As children of God, we are called, chosen — and therefore — we can be confident. Don’t give into the hype of fear. Rather, walk in the confidence of one who knows that God has their back.

Walking by faith is often a process. It’s a process filled with overcoming fear, ignoring doubt, and avoid the wrong voices. At times, it seems that such things can hinder the process, or to lead us to doubt what God said — causing us to feel as if we have nothing to believe for. Yet, when it feels like there’s nothing left — it might just mean we’re perfect in the middle of the process. Rather than believing we’re finished, let us find the faith to say, “I’m in process.”

We know that it’s easy to have faith when we can see the fulfillment of what we’re believing for right away. It’s a little more difficult to have faith when we have to remain patient, but it’s possible to remain hopeful with faith in those moments. However, what about the times we hold onto faith and never see the fulfillment? What about the times that we believed and never saw it happen? Are those moments of faith worthless? Did we miss God? Many of us struggle to keep faith the longer we follow Jesus because we’ve been let down one too many times. But what if those times weren’t a letdown? What if the promise we had faith for was never for us to see… but instead for someone else to experience from the benefits of our faith?

We all know that our trust should be in Jesus, but is that where our trust really is? Do we trust in Him, or do we trust in our own ability, talents, finances, gifts? The easiest way to tell where our trust truly lies is by following heart. And you can know where your heart lies by seeing where you invest your time, abilities, talents, finances, and gifts.