This is an excerpt from my new book Stop the Lies which will be available on Amazon. Click here to purchase a copy.
In keeping with our focus on right thinking, today we will study my friend, Peter. Do you like how I call him my friend? I imagine that if we had been contemporaries, we would have been friends.
Let’s take a look at Peter’s storm. Literally, he was stuck in a raging storm. Jesus came toward him walking on the water, and Peter volunteered to join Him. He locks eyes with Jesus and he started to walk on the stormy waves. He took his eyes off Jesus and began to sink. In that moment, when he was locking eyes with Jesus and climbing out of the boat and onto the raging water, his thinking was right. He was only focused on the Lord, and he was able to do what we think is impossible because he put his mind on Christ.
And so when we put our mind on Him and we think only of Him, then the storm may rage around us, but we won’t sink. We will stay steady and firm in Him.
One of the things that helps me when I’m going through a storm is, in the midst of the storm, I praise Him. When life’s just going insane and everything is not going the way it should, if we can stop and instead of curse the situation praise God, then the situation doesn’t look the same. A lot of times I will say to myself, “Stop and praise God!” Just like David talked to his soul, I talk to myself, “Louise, praise the Lord right now!” When I do that, things get better. I’m not always faithful to do it, but that’s my key to working through stuff a lot of the times. Simply going to Him and acknowledging how big God is, a funny thing happens. My problems don’t feel as big. I know He’s big, and I know He has a plan (Jeremiah 29:11). Even though things are looking crazy, I can still say He’s going to work this for my good because that’s what He promised (Romans 8:28). He’s going to finished what He started (Phil. 1:6).
When I started walking and the Lord healed me, the Lord had me saying two declarations every day. I would hit this one cul-de-sac, and I’d feel the prompt of the Holy Spirit and I would say, “These two things I know: I know there’s a God and I know He loves me.” And He would have me say that every day. I already know there’s a God. But, there’s something about saying it, “I know there’s a God and I know He loves me.” Because when life’s crazy that’s what I can lean on.
The other thing that I choose to do when I feel an attack from the enemy or when life seems crazier than normal, I dig in my heels and get to work on what the Lord has called me to do. Whatever that is. For example, the summer I started writing this book was extremely difficult for me. I felt like my entire world was out of control and everything that I thought I knew was not at all as it seemed. I clung to what I did know. There is a God, and He loves me. The other thing was to continue working on this Bible study because this is what He gave me to do, and I wanted to be faithful to it. Even though the enemy comes with an attack, we can’t cower and we can’t stop. When we stand strong and we stand firm in the midst of that attack, we gain back some territory. We are saying to him, “I’m not quitting.” There is something so powerful for me to hold this book in my hands and say, “Yes! I didn’t quit. I stuck through it. This is done. It feels so fantastic.” I’m not writing this book to sell a million copies or to become the next greatest author, I’m writing this book to help set the captives free. I want God’s name to be promoted.
I was seeing a new specialist for gynecological reasons. I went over my medical history with the doctor. It’s not a great medical history. There has been a lot of ups and downs. I listed them off, abuse, a miscarriage, infertility, endometriosis, and I just kept going and going. When I was finished, he put his pen down, he leaned into his desk and said to me, “You have had it hard.”
And by then I was crying because I was sharing very personal things. I smiled and responded, “I know I have, right? But, don’t let these tears fool you.” I wiped them away. I continued, “I know my God loves me. What you are writing down is hard. It’s terrible. And, it’s not fair that one woman should have to have endured all of those things. But my God gives me hope every day. He’s healed me from endometriosis. He’s healed me from arthritis. I’ve got two daughters that are from China. I have blessings in my life even though I would have wanted more blessings. I wouldn’t change the blessings.”
He really listened. Then after the exam I got dressed. He came back in and sat right next to me in his rolling chair and he asked, “Now tell me again how you were healed from the endometriosis. I want to hear that story. I really want to understand it.”
It was such a neat moment to just sit there and give God all the glory. Because he saw the medical file, the history is there, but it didn’t match up with what he saw during the exam. So for him to say to me, “Tell me again how this happened,” was not about me being healed as much as it was about God’s name being promoted.
I sit back and I think about things in my life and I can say, “He is a very good God.” We can focus on the negative, and we can focus on the storm, or we can look past it at our good God and how He delivers us, and how He redeems us and how He loves us.
He knows you. He loves you. He hears you. He has good things for you because He is a good God.
*Stop the Lies: 30 Days to Freedom, my latest book, is available on Amazon. Click here to purchase your copy and a copy for a friend.
