What Do I Know to Be True?

“What do I know to be true?”

I’d flung myself into the comfortable chair in our bedroom, in tears.

It had been another frustrating day.

My talented husband still did not have a job.

The health crisis I’d always feared loomed.

Nothing seemed to be going as I wished.

Didn’t God listen to my begged prayers?

The question: was our faith true or not?

Sometimes when we’re so muddled by our circumstances, it can be easy to get lost.

Our life had been in upheaval a long time.

Expectations, plans, circumstances shook us–how could we have found ourselves like this?

Didn’t God promise to be with us?

Hadn’t we followed where He led us?

Were we doing something wrong?

Was our faith, or lack thereof, the issue?

Back to the basics.

I needed to figure out what to do, but in the whirl of emotion, it was difficult to think.

The family had seen enough chaos, what could I do?

I decided to clear my mind and think about the very basic question.

“What did I know to be true?”

I sat in the chair, enfolded in it’s comfort and thought.

I always feel like a little girl safe on a daddy’s lap in that chair.

What was true?

Where was the answer?

A tiny memory, a slip of voice from the past whispered the answer.

“Jesus loves me. This I know.

For the Bible tells me so.”

The question was simple: “Do you believe that?”

If I believe it, is it true?

I thought about that very basic question.

Yes. I knew Jesus loved me.

1 John in the Bible tells me God is love.

Too many times in my life, I experienced God at work to deny His love.

Jesus, of course, died to take away my sin–that was true.

Concepts from the Bible whispered.

He would never leave me nor forsake me.

I knew that was true.

Remembering what I knew.

By starting with a basic truth, I began to rebuild.

Calmer now, I remembered all the times God had met our needs.

I remembered the day a whispered ribbon of thought slipped in one ear, across my forehead and out the other ear.

Just a tiny moment, but it reminded me, “It will be alright.”

That happened a few months before.

Friends prayed, people continued to pray. So far, we were making it.

Eventually, of course, I reached the true question: did I trust God?

Dancing around the core.

Jesus loves me. This I know.

My life had shown me so.

Did I want to deny the core of my life because of a momentary setback?

No.

In everything give thanks.

1 Thessalonians 15:18 came to mind:

“In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

That day I began listing the things I’m thankful for.

Starting with that basic truth, that Jesus loves me.

But the time I began to laugh and felt peace, I could face my family again.

Remembering what I knew to be true, was the key.

Merry Christmas

Tweetables

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