“Fear not for I am with you. Be not dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10)
    In recent times, this has become one of my favourite and most relied on verses in the Bible. As I have faced various trials and tests, I have learned more and more, with God’s help, to stand on His Word, to trust Him even in dire times. With this verse, God has been reminding me to not be afraid, to expect that in troubled times, He will strengthen and enable me to make it, and He will hold me up when everything around me is trying to push me down and keep me down. God is faithful and He is able.
    I am reminded of the story of David and Goliath in the Bible (1 Samuel 17). The Israelites were facing a challenge that was literally and figuratively bigger than they could handle. Its name was Goliath. The Israelite army were challenged to provide someone who could fight against and defeat this Philistine giant. The entire army cowered in fear. The challenge seemed an impossible one. Yet, one small shepherd boy, David, rose to the challenge. He trusted in Jehovah, his God and God did not disappoint his faith in him. David defeated that giant and the Israelite army were able to defeat the Philistines. It was never about David’s or anyone’s ability to do the job. It was about having faith that God would win the battle, no matter how hopeless it seemed. 
    Some years ago, Matt, a farmer was reminded of the importance of trusting in his God. He was driving his forty thousand pound combine harvester home when it hit a rough spot in the road and bounced out of control. Matt was thrown through the windscreen and landed hard on the pavement just feet from the large machine’s front tire. Miraculously, the combine stopped without running him over. 
    In spite of various injuries, Matt had no internal bleeding or life threatening trauma. He was discharged from the hospital the same day. When he arrived home, he examined the machine and discovered that three wires had been cleanly cut in half. All other wires had remained intact. Those three cut wires are what had caused the machine to stop and not run him over. No explanation could be found as to why or how those three specific wires had been cut. Matt credits God with this miracle. As he puts it, God is the only one who could defy the laws of physics and stop a forty thousand pound machine moving at twenty-two miles an hour in its tracks. Matt and his wife, Kelly, believe that prayer and their trust in God’s protection is what saved Matt’s life. 
    Trust is a small word that can help us face giant problems. David trusted his God to defeat the giant, Goliath. Matt, in retrospect, learned to trust that his God would protect and keep him in impossible situations. We can all put ourselves in their shoes. We will face impossible challenges that seem designed to harm us, hinder us, even destroy us. Yet, trust in God is key. It’s about trusting in God’s ability to deliver, not in our own ability. It’s about expecting that God will carry out His own Word. It's about trusting that if He tells us not to be afraid, that He will help us and strengthen us,  that He will keep His promise to us. God is faithful and He is able.
    If you have not accepted Jesus Christ into your life as your personal Lord and Saviour, I encourage you to do so today. God is still a present help in trouble. No matter how big and impossible your problem seems, it’s never too big or impossible for God. As God reminded Jeremiah (Jeremiah 32:27), just so He reminds us: “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for me?”

    Scott had been out hiking when he was bitten by a venomous snake. He made an effort to call for help but there was no cell service. He began making his way out as he felt the effects of the venom in his body. He finally collapsed about four miles from where he had parked his truck. 
    His wife, Nan, had become overwhelmed with a feeling of dread and had gone to meet him at their cabin. She found his trail map and was able to locate his truck but of course there was no sign of her husband. She was able to get help and rescuers began searching the area for him. While she waited, she trusted God and prayed. She also asked family and Christian neighbours to pray.
    While Scott lay on the trail, he prayed and felt God’s presence. He was confident that God was going to be with him throughout his ordeal. After many hours on the trail struggling to hold on to life, he finally chose to surrender to death. That night, rescuers finally found him. He was barely alive. He was taken to the hospital where he received twelve shots of anti-venom and spent three days in the ICU. Days later he awoke and knew that God was with him. Today, he has fully recovered and has no lasting effects from the snake bite. One of the things God showed him is that he is not always in control of every situation but that God is. Scott had to learn to lean on Him and lean into Him to make it out. Thankfully, he did just that and allowed God to lead the way.
    What initially caught my attention with this testimony was the reality of that venom going through his body and slowly killing him. This can be what it feels like when we are going through challenges. While we wait, it seems as if the challenge is sucking the very life out of us. We keep wondering, “God how long?” We may even feel as if we are not going to make it and we may give up in discouragement many times along the way. Like Scott, the pain, the weight of what we are going through may feel unbearable. Yet, it is at those times, that God wants us to lean heavily on Him because after all, He is in control, we are not. He wants us to trust that against all odds, He will bring us through. 
    We may wonder why God took so long to send help Scott’s way. However, if He had, Scott would not have experienced the intimacy and dependance on God that he did. He reached the point where he did not even fear death because he knew his life was in God’s hands. At the end of the day, we may hate the terrible situation we are in. We may hate how long it is taking for God to bring us through. But, God may not bring that situation to an end until we have learned all that He wants the situation to teach us.
    I once again turn to the story of the woman with the issue of blood (Luke 8:43-48). She spent twelve years with her condition. She initially put her trust in doctors and physicians to the point where she spent all her money trying to get help from them. By the time her resources were used up, her hope was also gone. By that time too, Jesus came on the scene and she heard about the miracles He was performing. Like Scott, she chose to depend on Jesus. He was now her only hope and He did not disappoint her. Had she been healed earlier, God would not have gotten the glory and she would not have connected the way she did with Jesus. In short, she would not have had the intimate experience with Jesus that she did.
    None of us like going through difficult seasons for any length of time. Yet, our timing and God’s timing are usually not the same. While we just want the situation to end, God is concerned about the valuable lessons to be learned. He desires that intimacy with us, that He knows may only come about during those challenging seasons. So, trust Him. He knows exactly what He is doing.
    If you have not accepted Jesus Christ into your life as your personal Lord and Saviour, I encourage you to do so today. God sees, knows and understands what you are going through. Yet, He cares enough to use even those difficult challenges to draw you closer to Him and to bring about what He knows is best for you.

    “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13)
    I share the testimonies I share because we all need hope. We all need to know that in the midst of impossible circumstances, as we face mountains that are difficult to climb, the God that we serve will come through for us. It may be impossible for us to achieve, but certainly not impossible for our God.
    I recently listened to the testimony of Shannon who got into a terrible car accident. Her two daughters were with her. They had all been critically injured. While her daughters were expected to make it, doctors felt that even if they saved Shannon’s life, she would be in a vegetated state. Their family and their church got into fervent prayer for them. Jason, her husband, chose to keep on believing, to keep on praying and he encouraged others to keep praying. He chose not to give up. He believed that Jesus was the only one who could change their impossible situation. 
Jesus did not disappoint them. Today, Shannon is a walking, talking miracle of what God can do.
    God is still the God who can do all things, especially those things that we cannot do. It can be difficult to have faith, to have hope in the face of negative circumstances. At the end of the day, many times, we do tend to walk by sight and not by faith. What we can see and touch, has a more powerful effect on us than what we cannot. Yet, God wants us to trust Him. The difficult situations that we do not like, is what God uses to build our faith and trust in Him. As much as we would like that bad things never happen to us, God will allow them because we actually need them for our own personal development. In addition to that, we won’t know what it’s like to have hope, if everything went well all of the time. We need those messy, unpleasant seasons, to instil hope in us and to remind us that God is many times our only hope.
    There are a number of stories in the Bible that can be used to describe this hope. I recall the story of blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46-52). As he sat begging at the side of the road, he heard that Jesus was coming. He cried out to get his attention but the crowd tried to silence him. He cried out even louder. Jesus heard him. When Jesus found out that he wanted his sight restored, He gave him his request. 
    What I like about this story is that Bartimaeus did not allow the negative response of the crowd to stop him from asking Jesus for His help. In fact, when the crowd tried to silence him, he shouted even louder to get Jesus’ attention. Bartimaeus had a hope, an expectation that Jesus could and would do something for him and he was not going to let the opportunity pass him by. He had most likely heard of Jesus’ miracles and expected that if Jesus did it for others, He could and would do it for him. This hope emboldened him to the point where he would not allow a crowd to shut him up. He wanted to be healed and he was going to get his healing. No one would stop him!
    Do we have enough hope and faith in what Jesus can and will do for us, that we are willing and determined to push past whatever obstacle may come our way? In my own experiences, God has taught me that He is my hope even when I feel hopeless. He has the final say in my situation, even in the face of negative opinions on it.
​    I think sometimes, hope is all we need, and God will do the rest. Sometimes, the only thing we can truly do is to have hope in the God who can do impossible things. I’m sorry to say that we will sometimes have to face negative situations in life. But, I am equally happy to say that our God of hope can enable us to make it through whatever comes our way. We can’t. He can. He will never fail.
    If you have not accepted Jesus Christ into your life as your personal Lord and Saviour I encourage you to do so today. As challenges come to test our faith and drain us of hope, our God is the hope we need to make it successfully through any situation. We are not alone.

    In the early hours of the morning, Nate was driving home, when he lost control of his truck. It crashed and he was thrown head first through the windshield, into a ditch. He lay there in the winter cold, bleeding for almost five hours. Finally, a farmer found him and called for help. He suffered frostbite, a fractured spine and swelling of his brain. His parents were called. His mother prayed asking God to do whatever He chose to do and she would accept it. They lived far away and had to fly to the hospital where he was. 
    At the hospital, the doctor told his parents that he was unstable, that if he attempted surgery to relieve the pressure on his brain, it would kill him. The doctor did not expect him to survive the night. Despite the negative report, Nate’s mother boldly told the doctor that there was still one thing he was not considering - the God factor. 
    As news of Nate’s accident went out, the family were encouraged by the prayer support they got from their home town and from all over the world. While Nate was in a coma, his brother sang Christian songs to him. As he did so, the pressure on his brain decreased to an acceptable level. A few weeks later, his mother convinced his doctor to take him off the ventilator. He reluctantly did so and the expected result did not happen. Nate was able to breathe on his own. That was a miracle. 
    After several more weeks, he awoke from his coma. After months in rehab, he made a full recovery and was able to return home. His family is thankful to God for his survival and healing and the prayers that went out on his behalf. His mother acknowledges that God is in control and He just wants us to trust and submit to Him.
    I am always encouraged by these testimonies of healing and deliverance. We serve a miracle-working God who is able to do above and beyond what we can imagine. However, the important thing is to stand on His Word and on His promises, believing that He is able and that He will do the miraculous in our life. It is easy to submit to the reports of human experts but at the end of the day, God is the only true expert who knows what even the human experts don’t know. 
    Nate’s mother chose not to accept the report she was hearing. As she told the doctor, there was one other important factor to consider, and that was the God factor. She did not stop at the doctor’s report, she chose to go further and believe in her God who could do all things.
    I recall the story of Jairus whose daughter died while he went to ask Jesus for help (Mark 5:21-43). Jairus could have submitted to the report of the messengers who told him his daughter had died. That was the fact. She had died. There was no more hope. Nate’s mother also received a hopeless report. The doctor expected death for her son. However, she chose to reject the doctor’s report and fix her faith on her God. Jairus too, chose to fix his faith on Jesus’ words: “Do not be afraid, only believe (v.36),” and he was not disappointed. Did Jairus face discouragement, did he face fear? Of course he did. He probably felt that he had wasted his time trying to get help and she still died. Yet, God had a bigger plan and His plan would work in Jairus’ favour.
    As you face negative, discouraging circumstances, where is your faith fixed today? On the God who is more than able to make a difference, or on the hopelessness that is in front of you? God has not disappeared just because a problem has popped up in your life. Jesus did not disappear from the scene at the news of Jairus’ daughter’s death. In fact, He was now more than willing and able to help, to turn an impossible situation around. And He did. 
    God is still very much present and active in our lives. He is not a silent spectator but a very present and active help when we need it. When things seem hopeless, all He wants us to do is trust Him.
    If you have not accepted Jesus Christ into your life as your personal Lord and Saviour, I encourage you to do so today. We all have choices. We can choose where we put our faith. We can either trust what we can see or what we can trust the ability of our God to make a difference. The choice is ultimately ours. Never forget the God factor in any situation. No matter how bad things get, God will always be there, a present help in times of trouble.​