God are You with Me in my Struggle with Misty Phillip

God, are you with me in my struggle? That is what Misty Phillip asked God. Now she shares her experiences in today's Livin' Lively with Laine Podcast.

 

I experienced many struggles from an early age. And then I thought when I became a believer that somehow life would be so much more amazing and that I wouldn't have struggles. And anybody who reads the Bible knows that Jesus said that we will have tribulation in this world, not we might have tribulation. And part of the Believers Walk is going through trials and tribulations, and it is those trials and tribulations that conform us to the image of Christ and make us more like him when we surrender and submit our lives to Him.

 

It's hard, though, isn't it? I mean, amid the struggle, it is hard to go, Okay, God, you're curating something beautiful out of this. And that is why it is a struggle because I think any of us with a faith root system knows God is there. But sometimes we don't feel like do we? Yeah, it can definitely be a challenge. But for me, I know that when I was going through some really serious struggles as a young wife and a mother, the only thing that got me through those struggles was my lifeline to the Word of God. And it was those times that God really poured into me that then I was able to pour that back out on the pages of the struggle is real, but so is God.

 

One particular season that I was referencing, as a new mom, I was on bed rest with my youngest son for almost my entire pregnancy. I had two boys that I was homeschooling, one of which had grand mal seizures as a baby and profound special needs. At the same time, we lived next door to my husband's parents, who both had brain tumors. So in that time, my husband lost his job. It was literally like one major thing after another. And that is just in a short couple years span. It was exhausting. And I was like, God, why not question him? Like, why is this happening? But what can I do? 

 

You know, being in His Word, searching for truth. And that's where I learned that we all have struggles, right? Sometimes they're small struggles, and sometimes they're big struggles. Your struggles are going to be different than my struggles. You know, other struggles I experienced in the past, I've lost babies, had a stillborn child with trisomy 18, experienced a lot of death and grief in my family. I was in rebellion as a young person and did all the wrong things before.

God radically changed my life. 

 

But in seasons, I was truly walking in darkness, and God radically pulled me out of that. So all of those struggles, you may not have my struggles, but we all struggle at some level, whether it's tension within our family, a job loss, or the death of a loved one. And so, how we navigate those trials is what I think is so important. 

 

I think it's okay for us to take our questions to God and ask him why we can't get stuck in the why. We have to surrender and bow our knees to him and pick up that cross and follow Him. And it's not always easy. But when we do that, we can rest under his sovereign hand. As you're talking, we see these are just amazing stories of true struggles. I feel struggles are universal, and they all are equal. What may be a struggle for you might necessarily be a greater struggle for someone else. I mean, struggles or struggles is all I'm getting to. I don't think we need to have opinions or measurements of it. If someone's hurting, then that's my measurement. If you're hurting, if you're in grief, or if you're struggling over something that you could not prevent that, man, those are tough times. 

 

And you do wonder, as you said, why not? Why God, but why? Why? What am I going to do about it? God? Tell us how your devotion or your Bible study came about through these struggles. Yeah. So when my oldest son went to college, I had homeschooled my boys and thought I was going to homeschool my boys and then be a grandma. And I realized very quickly that if I didn't find something else to do with my time, I would drive my boys absolutely crazy. 

 

And so I began praying and asking God and seeking Him for the next step in my life. And when my son was in college, he had signed up for a bike race. It's called the Ms. 150. It goes from Houston to Austin. And he was working full time and going to school full time, and he wasn't getting those rides in. And so, as a good mom, I was like, come on, son. I'll go for a ride with you.