It seems God is clearly telling us that we must believe to receive. But this is easier said than done when you find yourself caught up in fear! How can God bless us with a miracle if we don’t have faith enough to believe He can? Or worse yet, have faith enough to pray . . . but then doubt!

As I was saying in last week's post, I found myself in the middle of a prayer/fear loop—caught in a cycle of mental doubt and spiritual hope. I was stuck in an apartment all alone, just me and my puppy dog, in the cold darkness with no power. My emotions continued to drive me out of faith and back into fear as this winter storm progressed.

My fear-filled emotions persist as I begin to think the worst . . . It’s really getting crazy cold in here, we’re probably gonna freeze to death before we ever get the heat back on! Oh Lord, what am I gonna do?

This was one of those situations that I had absolutely no control over. I could do nothing . . . nothing but pray, so I began to pray again. But this time I started to think of all the times God has come through for me. This time I begin to pray a little differently, I begin to praise God instead of worrying, I start to thank Him and really believe that He was working on my problem—that He had already remedied this situation and my miracle was on its way!

Suddenly I stopped doubting and began to truly believe that God is in control. I started to sing one of my favorite praise songs as I clapped my hands! I even got the dog praising Jesus as we jumped up and down, clapping and singing. And guess what? The power instantly came back on . . . just like that! Now we're really praising Him! Yes…He never fails! Why, dear Lord, do I doubt you?

Honestly, I think the dog has more faith than me sometimes. He was never worried . . . he was actually sleeping through the worst of the storm until I woke him up to help me praise God!

At last, the power is back on! I now make a nice, hot cup of coffee and finally sit down with my Bible. As I just randomly open it I'm asking God, Why do I doubt you, why do I think I can do anything on my own? And He leads me right to this verse . . .

“Thus says the Lord: ‘Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,’ says the Lord.”   ~Jeremiah 9:23-24

Did you catch that? For in these I delight! So, apparently, not only is Jesus our source of solution to every single problem, it seems He’s delighted to help us as well. All He asks from us is that we continue to nurture our relationship with Him through faith. He really wants us to know Him intimately . . . “That he understands and knows Me.”

It still stumps me as to why the Creator of the universe would care so much about my one little problem. . . but He does. He cares about every single one of us, that’s just who He is.

The bottom line is this one thing, faith! It’s all about faith. Verse after verse continually tells us the very same thing . . . by our faith, anything is possible, not because we’re power-full, but because we’re faith-full!

I’m a work in progress, I’m learning as I go. The secret to success is to never give up, push past the fear and doubt, and just keep believing. Even Jesus’ disciple, Peter, had faith enough to actually get out of the boat and walk on water, but the very minute he doubted, he began to sink.

”And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him and said to him, O you of little faith, why did you doubt”   ~Matthew 14:31