Everyone loves a hero. If we’re honest with ourselves, many of us are looking for a hero, someone to come in and save the day, or pull us out of a tough situation, or more subtly and secretly, someone to love us and want us. This love letter will reveal who the real hero is! Thanks for joining us for Faith-filled Fridays with Trench Classes United and Debra Dolce.
 
~Love Letter~
 
My warrior, I will answer your cry for help every time you pray, and you will find and feel My Presence even in your time of pressure and trouble. I will be your glorious hero and give you a feast. What a glorious promise for you to meditate on.
 
No matter the language you study, Greek or Hebrew, no matter the translation you read, the fact is My love is from everlasting to everlasting. I am always with you to answer you when you pray. Come and sit in My Presence and let My love so completely fill you that you become sure within yourself that I hear and answer you.
 
I know your pressures and your troubles; are you bringing them to Me? Are you standing on My Word, on the promises I've given to you? I have made provision for your every need for I already knew before you were born what you would need.
 
Beloved, I am your hero, the One who loves you best, the One waiting for you to call upon Me.

Thanks for joining us for When Faith Meets Suffering, Part 11. Our author has actually been asked several times by some of her prayer team members if she was writing this journey down, to which she replied that she was via this blog, When Faith Meets Suffering. So, again, we want to emphasize that we realize Social Media is all about the “happy” side of life, and this may seem like a real bummer, but the author wants to share from the side of pain, because pain is a part of real life. On the other side, she knows in her bones that God will bring a victory from this season of suffering and will be just as transparent about the victory as she has been about the season of suffering.
As she pressed into God this particular morning, she was nervous about seeing him and hopeful all at the same time. It was mind boggling to her that despite all of the ugly thoughts and truths flickering in the background threatening to become an all-consuming fire that she would want to see him at all. But she did.
Was it her love for and faith in God or had she gone backwards in her own emotional healing of years past? She certainly wasn’t that desperate for a man. Why should she stay if all the pieces that were forming a picture were in fact in their right place? Who does that?
 
The questions and doubts lingered in her soul and the light of His whisper quickly pushed them all away: “Healing is not going to look like what you think it should.”
 
“Oh, Abba, help me to use this season wisely, to be able to look back and see me clinging to you, growing in all of your ways.”
The doorbell rang. “I’ll get it, Mom.”
“Okay,” Betty answered.
The hug he gave her was like that from an awkward friend. In fact the entire visit was awkward, strained. He even took a little nap after they looked at houses on his Zillo app. She tried to stay focused on the kind gesture of him coming to see her and watched his as he rested. He looked taunted, like he was wrestling with something, definitely not at peace. His eyes, when he opened them, were like pools of dark and murky water, revealing what was in his heart. He had been like this for several months and refusing to go to church had just deepened his stance in his unrest and taunting.
 
She was unaware of just how intense his internal struggle was and he had no idea how utterly and completely he had been deceived. She sensed his confusion and its cause but had no idea of his yearning to feel something for her, this woman he had married almost 15 years prior, while feeling way too much for his secret lover.
 
When she asked him what he was going to do that night, he was evasive, non-committal. His answer sent her back to her crying soul and she nearly screamed “He is not someone I would have chosen at this stage of my life, Father, but I didn’t choose him, You did, so I need to trust you in and through all of this.” Saying good-bye was awkward, hard. “We’ll do something fun tomorrow,” he offered. It felt like an awkward consolation prize; little did she know it was a guilt offering for this thoughts were already on his evening ahead.

Life is here
Then forever gone
A moment at once
Blink
and it’s a new dawn
 
A new day
A new place
Where we will finally get to see Your face
No longer a figment
No longer a dream
 
Reality
Let it sink
Sink in deep
This life that feels like a reverie
It’s really happening
 
Faster than our eyes can see
The dark clouds form
The thundering storm rolls
Because when it rains
It always pours
 
And our hearts they cannot bear
The words as they come
Unraveling us undone
Bringing us to our knees
When all we can do is sit in Your presence and just be
 
Be still and know
This world is not our home
Our life here is meant for you
To believe in You
The Almighty One
 
Knowing every day
By Your grace we have been saved
No matter the trials we may face
No matter the distress our hearts take
You, Oh Lord, are our dwelling place.
 
“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, ‘My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

• Psalms 91:1-2

Ahhh, how true it is that often when we don’t know where He’s taking us we resist, struggle and twist, instead of just letting Him lead. I hope you enjoy Debra’s love letter as much as I did this week!
~Love Letter~
 
My dear one, hear Me say I will stay close to you, instructing and guiding you along the pathway for your life. I will advise you along the way and lead you forth with My eyes as your guide.
 
So don't make it difficult; don't be stubborn when I take you where you've not been before. Don't make Me tug you and pull you along. Just come with Me. Release all that fear and come with Me, for I have so much for you.
 
I know at times you have a tendency to run ahead, but wait! Stay close to Me that you will be enlightened. As you sit quiet in My Presence things will be revealed. Yield to My direction. There are times you think it should be a certain way so be sensitive to what I'm saying.
 
When things seem impossible, then sit with Me. I'll either show you the right way or help you be strong and courageous as you walk through the impossible.
 
Beloved, I will never leave you or abandon you when things are difficult.

When Faith Meets Suffering-Part 11
Thanks for joining us for When Faith Meets Suffering, Part 11. Our author has actually been asked several times by some of her prayer team members if she was writing this journey down, to which she replied that she was via this blog, When Faith Meets Suffering. So, again, we want to emphasize that we realize Social Media is all about the “happy” side of life, and this may seem like a real bummer, but the author wants to share from the side of pain, because pain is a part of real life. On the other side, she knows in her bones that God will bring a victory from this season of suffering and will be just as transparent about the victory as she has been about the season of suffering.
The days turned into weeks, like a film in slow-motion, so painfully and relentlessly slow. And in the slowness, lies were being uncovered and truths were rising to the surface, making their way into her heart. Both sent her scurrying to her Savior for understanding, comfort and strength. The glue that kept her together was knowing that her – and his – Savior was fighting for their marriage. Not once, but twice the house had gone into escrow and both times it had fallen out for no apparent reason other than the buyers had changed their minds! The realtors had NEVER seen it happen twice in  a row like that.
But she was calmed with the reality of God protecting him from making a huge mistake, a Loving God pursuing him relentlessly for He is protective of what He had brought together more than 14 years ago.
This was such a comfort for her aching soul. It spurred her on to a deeper trust.
The spiritual truths she searched for and those that showed up without beckoning held her together as if sewn into her inner parts with an industrialized sewing machine in a factory of hard-working angels. They came mostly in the quiet but they also showed up to quiet the noise.
Night times were the worst, when flashbacks of ignored moments would come rushing to her mind and threaten to overwhelm her with grief that turned into anger the more she dwelt upon them. “Why, oh why did I ignore the whispers in my soul warning me of the enemy’s schemes to be played out and participated in by those people whom I called friends? The evidence of the affair was mounting, causing her to walk unsteadily emotionally and physically. She went to His well often and drank…for endurance, understanding, for pain relief.
And the waiting, wondering if he would call, or text, even if it was out of obligation, just so she could know he was still there and she was there in his thoughts. She was torn between letting him go and wanting him to stay; so she chose to let God lead and not participate in creating more damage. She chose to be still and know, experience with her inner being, that God was and is a good, good Father, and though it felt like a train wreck day after day, she dared herself to trust for He had never failed her yet.
Are you going thru something painful, questioning why things are happening the way that they are? May I encourage you, my friend, to press into His principles and promises for they never lie! Find a scripture and put yourself in it!
Isaiah 25:1 (rewrite) Lord, You are MY God; I will exalt you and praise your name; for in perfect faithfulness you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago. And you use all things. In your sovereignty, NOTHING is wasted, not even the pain.
Love,
Kim-Evinda

 Draw near
The distance is very clear
Haven’t felt Your love
and you haven’t felt mine

Time

That’s life
A matter of minutes
and moments playing through our minds

Time is all we have
Something we can’t control
Yet we can
In a matter of a plan

The minutes pass on
and the seconds seem long
When you’re always waiting & wondering
Of all the things that can go wrong

Hit pause
Not the clock
But in your day
It’s your time, your say

To make time
To show love
To be kind
To drop down & pray
He has not gone away
His love is here to stay
Just ask Him to show you the way
Draw near
That love you are missing is right here
 
“Be still and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”

• Psalms 46:10

Oh, the power of speaking the principles and promises within the Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth!
My precious lamb, I, the Lord merely spoke, and the heavens were created. I breathed the word, and all the stars were born. I made you in My image and now you too can speak life into every situation. You can declare a thing and it shall be.
Keep yourself from negativity. Be quick to forgive and keep your heart pure before Me. Let go of the things that would try to pull you down and rise above those things, then you may declare My Word boldly and with power.
Sow seeds of peace and joy everywhere you go that others will recognize My nature in you. When things are difficult remember that you belong to the God who hung the stars in place and called them by name. Beloved, come, learn of Me, spend time with Me, place your trust in Me, walk in all My ways and let Me shower you with My love, My grace and with My mercy.

Have you ever found yourself experiencing what I call Fakebook envy, or Insta-regret as you scroll through the pages of others seemingly staged perfected lives? You’re not alone!
Thanks for joining us today for our Wednesday’s Word with our guest blogger, Breanna Foster! I love her transparency and I’m sure you will too!
We will resume next week with more of When Faith Meets Suffering.

As I get another year closer to 30 as a single mom, the emotional and mental breakdowns occur seemingly way more regularly. It’s so easy to lose sight of how far you’ve come and where you are today and instead be laser-focused on the one thing you don’t have, especially when you log in to the utopia we call Instagram and/or Facebook and see everyone with their perfect 6’4” God-loving husbands and farmhouses built from the ground up. 

It’s almost like I become a toddler in a candy store throwing a fit via text to my girlfriends accompanied by a screenshot screaming “WHY CANT I HAVE THIS?” 

But that’s just the thing about social media. It conditions us to subconsciously compare our triumphs, wins, success, happiness and lives to people who may not even be happy below the surface. This is not to say that people are all secretly miserable but instead, I am learning that it’s okay to wait for something that doesn’t just look good, but that feels good too. 
Happiness and success look different on everybody. I know this season of my life has called me to do other things. I may not be growing my family but I am growing in other ways. I may not be where I thought I’d be at 28, but I am where God wants me to be. I won’t compare. And I’ll rest easy knowing that God is working in ways I can’t even see. All for me. Plus, look at this cutie who looks up to me.❤️

Steadfast in truth
Breanna

Can you stand strong on your own?
Or do you break down
Feeling the emptiness deep in your bones

Remembering the days when you were so young
So wild, So free
Dreaming up stories, fairytale scenes
Thinking one day ‘that will be me’

I will meet my prince on a bright starry night
And off we will ride into the moonlight
On his white stallion horse
But that wasn’t your course


You took a turn here, stumbled a bit there
Pricked by a thorny rose bush
Soon you were more than stumbling

No longer that strong, independent girl
Alone, afraid, and lost in this world
Anxiety crept in
Dark thoughts took you through a spin

When does the madness ever end?

My friend you look lost
A bit over tossed
By the waves and the wind
The storms took you and kept you in

Break free
Break down
Brake left
Brake right

You’ve lost your sight
With those burning tears in your eyes
Your help is here
Look around

Deep inside
There is a light
He is shining for you, Oh so bright
Waiting for you to take flight

He will cut all your chains
At the shout of His name
Singing ‘Jesus you I will forever praise!’
How glorious and marvelous is your magnificent name

Forever near
I’ll hold you dear
Knowing that by Your grace I am more than saved
My path has been paved