“Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.” Isaiah 46:4

The other day, a friend texted me this verse, condensed to say “I (God) will carry you.” Oh, how I needed to be reminded of that. This has been one of the most circumstantially trying weeks of our lives. Our house flooded last weekend and for six straight days, we’ve been entrenched in the cleanup process. Nearly 90% of our home was impacted.

Our basement

When you’re in the middle of a crisis, sometimes it’s hard to stop and rest in His peace. I’m seeing that and I’m sensing the devil is dancing around with a big smile on his face, thinking he’s going to cause us to slip and fall away from Jesus. Well, I have news for him. That ain’t happening! He can pack up his bag of junk and get out of our way.

What I’ve learned this week is that I may have gotten a little too comfortable with my routine, possibly even prideful, thinking I could handle some things on my own. Perhaps, I was holding back, not living fully surrendered to His will. He’s using this life event to remind me that I need Him for everything.

Since this happened, I’m starting my mornings a new way. I’m praying something like this: “Lord, thank you for this day. I don’t know what lies ahead, but you do. I know that only by trusting you and living in your will can I make it through this. Please help me. Please keep me centered on you, when the challenges come and the stress is high, bring me back to you.”

I’m trying to take in every chance I have to sneak in a moment of His presence. I’m looking up to the heavens when I am outside, whether it’s to let the dogs out or to haul yet another load to the dumpster. I’m trying to breathe in deeply and thank Him along the moments of the day.

Really, I’m doing what I should have been doing all along. It shouldn’t have taken a crisis for me to figure that out, but in a way, I’m glad it happened so I could. Are you with me?