Having Faith Through The StormProverbs 3:5-6  “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”My question at the moment is how do we have faith in the storm? I find it easy to have faith when life is going good, when we might have an issue or two, but no big stressors at the moment. I find it easy to rely on God when everything is coming up in my favor, but what about when there are struggles? What about when things happen that cannot be explained? Last year around this time we received devastating news. Our perfect dog, that we adopted from a rescue two years ago had spinal cancer and was in a lot of pain. We knew she was sick and we had been taking her to the vet every so often for several weeks. They gave her medicine and she seemed to turn the corner. She seemed like she was on the way to recovery. Although we did not know what caused her to struggle for a few weeks, we were happy that she was on her way back to being healthy. She was only 3.5 years old, so we were sure whatever it was, she would get better. Then one day she started to whine all throughout the day and night. We were not sure what was going on. We finally were able to get her into the vet and she told us the worst news ever. She told us that our beautiful girl had cancer and was in so much pain and that there was nothing that could be done. We had a feeling going into this appointment as Skye was struggling to even walk, however, hearing it was so much worse. It made it so real. I instantly prayed, and I had every single person that I know pray. I know God is capable of miracles, I know he does them every day. I know he could have cured our girl in an instant, and he did’t. How does one wrap their head around that? How does one have faith in a situation like this? I was in a similar place less than a year before this as well.  My friend had throat cancer. I prayer over her, so many people prayer over her and for her and yet she passed away. I know God could have healed her in an instant. So, why didn’t he? Why didn’t he save her from her disease? Why did he have to take her, why did he have to take our dog? The answer is, I don’t know. I don’t know why some people die and some people are healed. I don’t know why some dogs live to an old age and some die at a young age. I don’t know why God does what he does. And, this is ok. We are not supposed to know everything, at least not on this side of heaven. God is a mystery. One thing I do know is that God’s ways are not our ways. Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” God has a plan. His plan is greater than any plan we could possible have for ourselves. He does not think like we think. He knows every second of our life before we are even born. I trust that even though I don’t understand why we had to lose Skye, God has a plan. Skye came to our family when we were in desperate need for healing. We had had a rough couple of years to say the least and we needed to heal our hearts. We needed to learn to love again and to be calm and nice and everything that Skye was. She had the perfect temperament. She was calm, she loved to be pet, she could see when you were upset and she knew when you needed her to just be next to you. She got everyone outside walking again.  She helped everyone to feel love again.I know with 100% certainty that she was sent to us from God when we needed her most. I am so very thankful for the time we did get to spend with her and I know she is in a better place right now where she is no longer in pain. In Proverbs 3:5 we are told “trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.” I did not want to just leave you with this thought and not give you some practical ways to trust God in difficult times. Some people find strength and comfort in reading the bible verses and hearing God’s words, and others need more practical steps in how to apply these words in their everyday life. I found this article called “3 Secrets to Trusting God During Difficult Times” on the Vibrant Christian Living website. (link: https://vibrantchristianliving.com/trusting-god-difficult-times/ )I will summarize the three practical steps that she takes to trust God in difficult times.1. We must take responsibility for what we choose to savor. What are you taking the time to savor? Are you focusing on the fears and pain, or are you focusing on the beautiful things in life, like the sunset? If you allow your thoughts to linger on the “what ifs,” you will cripple your ability to trust God during hard times.2. We must quiet our lives so that we can discover (and savor) the quite undercurrents of joy. Life gets so busy that we don’t notice the small things that bring us joy. The author states, “When I am enduring a trial I have to regularly quiet my heart: to let out the surge of emotion that is building; and to allow God to replenish my soul with reminders of the beauty that is happening in my little world.” What are the small beautiful things in your world that you are not seeing because you are too busy? This sort of goes back to the practice of gratitude. If you are really struggling right now, take a notebook and start or end each day with writing 5-10 things for which you are grateful. You will be surprised how many more awesome things you will notice about your life. 3. Release your fears to God and choose to savor His replenishing promises. The article mentions a well-known bible verse that Christians tend to quote during a trial. Philippians 4:6-7 says, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” Then the author states that although this is beautiful the true power of this verse is actually outlined in the following two verses. Philippians 4:8-9 says, “ And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.” First, we must release our fears and tell God what we need and thank him for all he has done. However, we must not stop there. We must fix our thoughts on what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely and admirable. If you take this seriously, if you focus your thoughts on these things during a trial, you will find it easier to find joy. When you are tempted to let you thoughts wander into dark places, confess your fears to God and meditate on the truth. Make a list of what is true in your situation and meditate on those anytime you are struggling. There is truth and light in every situation. You just need to find it and focus on that. My truths are that Skye was here for us when we needed her. We were able to give her an amazing home filled with love for almost 2 years. She was happy here. She is no longer in pain. When I get sad, I can focus on these truths.  What are the truths in your situation?Dear heavenly father I ask that you bless everyone listening to this episode today. Lord Jesus there are so many people hurting right now and we ask that you are with them all during this difficult time. Lord we ask that you help us focus on the positive and that you shine a light on the truths in our situation.  Help us Lord when we don't understand. We know your ways are not our ways and your thoughts are not our thoughts. Comfort us Lord during this difficult time.  Strengthen our faith and help us rely on you. Calm the waves of our storm as you did for the disciples when they were in the boat.  Lord, we love you so very much and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.