You are not alone!

That was a message I gave to someone in my office recenlty and it brought them to tears to know they were not alone in their struggles. Today I was the one in tears as God reminded me of the same thing.

If you have been reading my blog at all you know that our family struggles are well documented. This has been even a tougher week as we prepare for our sermon series on parenting. I have been challenged from every direction. This morning I was talking to God and just having a particularly difficult morning and week for that matter. I was lifting up my family, my kids, and my marriage. I was just really really sad and heartbroken. I felt so lonely and I just asked God for his presence. I was just feeling like I needed someone to pray with me. After that prayer time I read some scripture and began my work for the day.

Not 30 minutes later Kathy Oliver comes walking in the door of my office and told me that God placed it on her heart that she wanted to pray for me. Guess what...without my prompting she prayed for me, my children, my wife. She prayed for my parenting and my marriage. WOW! All I could do was listen to her prayer and shed tears. All that was running through my mind at that moment was how good God is and that we are not alone in our struggles. That God will let us know He is there and present ever-working in our life. He reminded me that all we have to do is ask and we shall receive. I sensed nothing other than the presence and work of God as we prayed together. It is amazing how God shows Himself to us when we aren't even expecting it. My God is a personal loving God. He cares about my day to day stuff. He longs for me to share what is on my heart with Him and He works to surround me with the people and relationships I need to make it through everyday living. He is an awesome God!

I ask that each of you keep praying for me. I have felt so inadequate preparing for this sermon series. I have failed in so many ways as a parent and as a husband. At times I have gotten it all wrong. But by the grace of God there are times where we have gotten it right and have trusted God's work in our family. It is so easy to let the voices of Satan and our Giants overwhelm us. We start to believe that we are no good, that we can't make a difference, that we can't teach on this stuff because we have struggles with it and aren't perfect. I have been spending this week chasing away those voices of negativity and learning to trust God's presence and to recognize His voice. His voice tells me to keep going and that He is going to show up big in this series if I only trust Him to. Today He showed up big-time and reminded me He is the one with the power not Satan, not my Giant sized struggles, not even me. He is the King of Glory! Blessings, Your Dreaming Pastor