Thank Him for the Trials!

This week has been rough for me, my babysitter has been down with the stomach flu for the last 3 days, my toddler did not want to leave the house, it's been raining since Monday night, and my husband is out of town for a while. All these things are roaming through my head rent free y'all!

I decided to ask my wonderful boss if I could bring my son to work with me for a few hours today because it was either that or I take the day off (which was not happening). Thankfully she agreed since my little one was getting picked up for school at 11:40am. I got up this morning knowing the challenge that was ahead of me. Knowing that I was going to take my toddler to the place he loves (church) but he wouldn't be aloud in the nursery. I was mentally prepared for a meltdown, but I was also praying that the Lord would be with me.

We did our usually stuff this morning, ate breakfast, mommy had coffee and worship music going, I read my devo's for the day, and got some lunch packed for my boy. My oldest son fends for him haha, no, I made him breakfast too because I love him. Anyway, after getting my busy toddler dressed I headed to the car to start loading it. I was slightly stressed because it was 8:35am and I needed to leave in 5 minutes.

My Bubble Guppy watching son did not have his shoes on nor did he know where they were, and I was struggling to keep it together because now, out of nowhere, the enemy starts taunting me. He starts saying "you know if you keep this up you're going to get fired. You should just quit your job today. Quit before you get fired.". Like, why does he do this? The enemy waits until you are at the peak of your anxiety to attack, because he knows your mind is wondering away from the Father. The enemy will watch you struggle like a lion watches for his prey. The bible literally says "the devil walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8 NKJV). That's what he does, he waits for you to slip up, he waits for you to be overcome by your circumstances, then he attacks you.

The good news is we have a God that has overcome the world, defeated Satan, and took the keys to hell and death! His name is Jesus! 1 John 4:4 says "greater is He who is in you than he is who is the world". Jesus has overcome the world, He has overcome anxiety, and He has overcome the attacks of the devil. It's safe to say the devil is a loser, because my God already has the victory! Back to the story...

So, I finally got my baby boy in the car and we are taking off to work. As I'm driving, I start balling my eyes out because the thoughts would not stop. All I kept hearing in my head was "you should just quit your job", "you know you're going to get fired for this", "your boss can't depend on you, so just quit already". After a few minutes of this I decided to thank God for the trials I was facing. I know, crazy! But that's what the Holy Spirit was telling me to do. I thanked God for the problems I was having. I also told Jesus that I trusted Him, and that I needed Him in that moment. I just kept repeating that "I trust You Jesus", "I need you Jesus", " Thank you God for this trial". And guys, it worked!

Everything I was stressing out about just went away. It disappeared. Those thoughts the enemy was trying to get me to agree with just fled. The bible says "resist the devil and he will flee" (James 4:7). That's what happens when you start thanking God for the very thing the enemy is using to destroy you. You give God glory in the moments you want to give up on yourself. Bringing those cares to your Heavenly Father is the best thing you can do for yourself because you realize that He is in control, not you. God never wanted us to fight our battles alone, He always wants us to bring the battle to Him so He can fight it. And if that's not enough, He gives us armor to wear to resist the attacks of the devil.

Moral of the story, when we thank God for the trials we are giving Him permission to help us get through them in His strength.

Be blessed my friends.