I Can’t Give Up Now

This year has been one of many lows for me, sometimes I felt like giving up. At times I wondered where was my loving God in the many situations I faced. It was at those moments He remaindered me that "Never will He leave me; never will He forsake me.” Hebrews 13:5

Yes, you are facing some hard situations and yes, the trouble of your heart have multiply but I am with you.

During this year, which I have taken to calling my season of loss and gain, I have learned to trust in God with every fiber of my being. Throughout this season of testing and trials two sermons continue to play in my head, one is a sermon my Senior Pastor preached over a year ago entitled “It’s Just a Test”. The scripture reference he used was Job’s testing experience. So many people look at the many situations I have been faced with or I am now facing. I look sometimes at my trials and wonder why I have not lost my mind then God reminders me that He is keeping me. Yes, I have lost my Granny and cousin, my job, my finances are what they are but I have not lost the love, peace, joy and protection of an Awesome God. He is still there protecting me during this storm. So as I think about the sermon and Job’s experience I know God will bring me out just like He did for Job. I have to weather this storm and learn the lessons God wants to teach me and show me during this testing season.

The other sermon is one my Associate Pastor preached entitled “Out of Your Egypt”. The scripture he used was the Israelites’ captive and ultimate exodus out of Egypt. I went back last week and re-listen to the sermon. Pastor B said, you can be blessed in your Egypt. I must have missed this point in the sermon and has been over a year since I heard it. I could not understand it but as I looked at my present Egypt experience I am being blessed. God is revealing folks true character to me. He is showing me more and more of His grace and mercy. He has taught me how to truly appreciate what we sometimes call the smaller things in life. He has shown me those who truly love me for me. He has also revealed the things I need to be delivered from like pride, poor stewardship and poor time management.

So, as the storms of life rage on I chose to believe God and allow His Word to navigate me through the tough times. Like King David, I too, “lift up my eyes to the hills— where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD watches over you— the LORD is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life; the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore. Psalm 121”

I am my Heavenly Father’s child, Jesus is my Savior and that means I will always triumph of the obstacles of life. Because God is my help and He remains faithful to His Word to always come to my rescue, I continue to trust in Him and to seek Him during these trying times.
I know I can’t give up and I will not give up. Like the Apostle Paul, I too, am” confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6
Another song I love is Mary Mary’s I Can’t Give Up Now:

There will be mountains that I will have to climb
And there will be battles that I will have to fight
But victory or defeat, it's up to me to decide
But how can I expect to win If I never try.

I just can't give up now
I've come too far from where I started from
Nobody told me the road would be easy
and I don't believe he brought me this far to leave me

Never said there wouldn't be trials
Never said I would't fall
Never said that everything would go the way I want it to go
But when my back is against the wall
And i feel all hope is gone,
I'll just lift my head up to the sky
And say help me to be strong

Never give up on God because He will never give up on you. Let Him walk you through the storms and allow Him to heal you.

Be blessed!!!

All I Can DO Is Trust You Lord

There is a song I love by James Fortune entitled I Trust You. The song simply says, I will trust You, Lord. My favorite lines are “everything that I see, tells me not to believe, but I'll trust you Lord, you have never failed me, I can only trust you, no one else loves like you do.”

Here is why I love the lines in this song because I can go to God’s Word and find scripture to support what the song writing is saying. I have evidence that God can be trusted, His Word tells me so. At this point in time I find myself unemployed with more bills than money but I also have a promise and directions from my Heavenly Father.

My flesh is telling me I am in a very bad situation right now with the job marketing looking the way that it does and the bills coming in every month still. The flesh is screaming Ryane, we can not wait on God we have to do something.

Then there is the Holy Spirit living in me that says, God is going to do what He says He will do. Just stand still and see Him work everything out for you.

Everything I see, tells me not to believe
In this world you will have trouble. John 16:33
A righteous man may have many troubles…Psalm 34:16

The Word of God tells me, there will be some troubling times and situations, such as unemployment, death, hurt and pain. The enemy would have you to believe in these situations God is not there for you and you would not make it through your situation. This thought is contrary to the Word of God. In Hebrews 13:5 God said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” And because I know God is not a man that He should lie, I chose to believe God in these troubling days I am experiencing because as Hezekiah Walker songs Faithful, faithful is our God, I WILL reap the harvest God promised me…taking back what the devil stole from me….I SHALL recover it all… cause faithful is our God.

I'll trust you lord, you have never failed me
…but the LORD delivers him from them all. Psalm 34:16
I trust in God’s unfailing love for ever and ever. I will praise you forever for what you have done; in Your name I will hope. Psalm 52:8-9
… But take heart! I have overcome the world. John 16:33

As I look back over my life, I can honestly say God has been with me. He has been my Shepherd through the good and bad times. Everything in His perfect that I have asked Him for has been given to me. Even with the recent unemployment God is answering my prayers. See, I begin to pray God would remove me from my old job (He did) and when He removed me from that job, I would not go to another desk job but I prayed for Him to move me into working in the ministry and writing full time. I know see God moving on the working in ministry and with the upcoming release of my first book I see Him working on the writing. The financial situation maybe but my Father is rich. Everything on earth and in heaven belongs to Him.

Every time the enemy tries to get me to worry and to have doubt in God bringing me out of this, I remember that 2:49 a.m. wake-up call from God. He said not to worry; He was going to take care of everything concerning me. God know my cousin and Granny would be called home to glory, He knows my prayers for my family, He knows my financial situation. King David wrote in Psalm 139: 2-5 and 16-17, “You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me… your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to [b] me are your thoughts, O God! He knew these troubling days were ahead of me but He said in John 16:33, “take heart! I have overcome the world.” I trust Him because I seen Him bring me out many situations before and I KNOW for sure His thoughts toward me are beautiful ones. In Jeremiah 29:11 God said, 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 hope and a future.


I can only trust You, no one else loves like you do.”
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19

A couple of weeks ago, God wake me up again this time He took me on a journey through His Word. We started with Deuteronomy 5:32-33, 6, 28, 29, 30, then Psalms 23, 39, then Isaiah 55, then Matthew 6:25-34 and then Hebrews 11. When you have sometime read those chapters and verses then you will now why I am not worried about anything. The Word says, the just shall live by faith. It is only fitting God end our journey through His Word that early morning with Hebrews 11 which is entitled By Faith. The first three verses says, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.”

Dorinda Clark Cole has a song that says, God is going to do everything He promised you. I trust God more than enough to know He will do what He promised me. Yes, the promising of the Father are real to me. If I have to go through this season of death, pain, financial instability and lack, I am going through with an Awesome Father who has already walk the path before. I know this is just a test of my faith and so I believe God. I trust He will bring me out of this because His Word says in Philippians 1:6, “being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

I WILL TRUST YOU LORD!!!