We were reaching a point in our lives as a family where God wanted us to step out in faith and move on the account of His voice. Now this is definitely one of those concepts, which is much easier said than done. God called us as a family to move +/-1026 km away from our current home. Our current home is basically the place where I grew up, it is spacious, our church is situated here. We even have a childhood tree in the yard, my sister got married here, raised both her children here, I recovered from all my brain related surgeries here and we had my sister’s husband tribute here etc. Therefore, all our memories are tied to this place. So, when God spoke and said that we should move, that really took a toll on my heart, I was not ready to say goodbye to the place where I grew up. Saying goodbye was definitely a storm I was facing and alongside that storm there was so many other storms that was raging against me emotionally. It felt quite stormy around me and the feeling of being alone was intensified. Remember a lot of people do not understand your step of faith and no one completely understands what you are going through. Even though we as a family were doing this together, each of us went through our own trails. At this point I was feeling quite sorry for myself.

However, self-pity is not the destination God has for us so Holy Spirit will come and guide us out of this place of self-pity. In my case Holy Spirit used my mom. While in this place of feeling sorry for myself her words “Neya, you are focusing of the storms and not on God” draw me back to the heart of Holy Spirit. Remember self-pity is a distraction from the victory that God has for us on hand. So, immediately I went and repent from my sin, I was honest before God. Telling God that I was scared, I felt alone, and everything was impossible, I remember clearly telling God through the tears that the storms was to much for me to handle. After giving all my cares and worries to God. God reminded me about James 1 :2 -4: “Consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations. Be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith bring out endurance and steadfastness and patience. But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing.”

“let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing.”

Here I was reminded that trails or storms are going to be part of life and the Word of God is encouraging us to rejoice in them, because this produce faith and endurance. We as Christians need both faith and endurance to run this race of life steadfastly and to complete it. The Bible states that we should fight the good fight, finish this race and keep faith in it ( 2 Tim 4:7). Going through storms allow our characters to be build-up in Holy Spirit so that we endure through what life has a head for us. This makes me think of a soldier, the first war a soldier attends he is weak and does not have a lot of knowledge about it, but as he partakes in wars over and over again, he grows and becomes better in it. Going through wars in life helps us to grow in Christ and it shapes us into the image of Jesus.

I want to encourage you today, don’t look at your storms, look towards God. Don’t shrink back into self-pity, but bring your cares and worries to the cross and allow Jesus to take it. Stand up in the Spirit and walk as the victorious warrior God intended all of us to be.

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