{"id":11366,"date":"2017-08-04T00:10:38","date_gmt":"2017-08-04T07:10:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lccredding.com\/lcc\/?p=11366"},"modified":"2017-08-04T00:10:38","modified_gmt":"2017-08-04T07:10:38","slug":"august-4-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2017\/08\/04\/august-4-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"August 4, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cTo You, my strength, I sing praises, because God is my stronghold, my faithful God.\u201d<\/em> Psalm 59:17 HCSB<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLife Is Tough, But God Is Faithful\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

I read the words of today\u2019s title in comments about the lyrics of Mercy Me\u2019s song \u201cEven If.\u201d* It was quoted from Sheila Walsh at a Women of Faith Conference. It\u2019s so true. Life is tough most days, but God is ALWAYS faithful.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve felt very overwhelmed this week: a relentless job workload, my mom is having a heart procedure out of town that I\u2019m unable to travel to, and there is some major upheaval in the life of one of my kids.<\/span><\/p>\n

Looking out at the circumstances, I confess I can hardly breathe. I can only see so far into, and only do so much within, them. But when I choose to look up and focus on God, I am reminded how able He is and how faithful He has been in other tough times in my life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know how these issues are going to work out, but as I prayed about them, as I looked up and gave God my frustrations and my fears, He in return spoke gentle and loving words to me.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He revealed the pressure I am putting on myself at work, driven by a fear of failure and the need to feel useful and productive. He reminded me again, I am enough in Him. I am loved and adored by Him not because of what I do, but because of who I am in His Son.<\/span><\/p>\n

With my mom, it\u2019s the fear of what if something goes wrong and I\u2019m not there to catch it? The fact the procedure is one day before the anniversary of my father\u2019s death doesn\u2019t help. Completely different circumstances, but I wasn\u2019t there to catch that either. God gently reminded me, some things simply aren\u2019t mine to catch. He was there with my dad and He will be there with my mom as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

The kid issue is a relational one. There is both relief and heartache. A chance for a new beginning or a stepping back into unhealthy patterns which have helped shape more than a decade of her young life. I want to run over and \u201chelp\u201d\u2014making sure the change happens\u2014yet with the least amount of pain possible for all concerned. Another gentle reminder from God: she needs to do this. I can be supportive, but this is her journey, not mine.<\/span><\/p>\n

Part of \u201cEven If\u201d goes like this:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI know the sorrow, and I know the hurt<\/span>
\nWould all go away if You’d just say the word<\/span>
\nBut even if You don’t<\/span>
\nMy hope is You alone.<\/span>
\nYou’ve been faithful, You’ve been good<\/span>
\nAll of my days<\/span>
\nJesus, I will cling to You<\/span>
\nCome what may<\/span>
\n\u2018Cause I know You’re able<\/span>
\nI know You can\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGod, life is tough, but You truly are faithful. Whatever happens, may we hope in, and sing praises to, You alone. Amen.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

*Songwriters: Bart Marshall Millard\/Benjamin Glover\/Crystal Lewis\/David Arthur Garcia\/Tim Timmons\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/h4>\n

Even If lyrics \u00a9 Sony\/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Music Services, Inc<\/span><\/em><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cTo You, my strength, I sing praises, because God is my stronghold, my faithful God.\u201d Psalm 59:17 HCSB \u201cLife Is […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p92wjD-2Xk","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11366\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}