Faithbase

Hello, my name is Jackie DeHora and I'm a licensed mental health therapist. My husband Elias and I are the owners and counselors at Therapies Counseling. Today I'm bringing you a message that I've titled, Trust the Process. Sometimes it can be hard to trust God while you wait for him to tell you what to do next. Like who you should pick as a close friend or what classes you should take, what job you should apply for. Who you should date or if you should move and where. What church you should attend. Sometimes it's hard to trust God when what he tells you to do doesn't make sense. Sometimes it's hard to continue to trust God in the waiting process. Like you know it's coming but you don't know when. This was the case for the woman in the Bible named Sarah. She was Abraham's wife and Isaac's mom. She was known as a woman that stood by her husband's side no matter what. When she was young and old. She was known for her beauty and because she couldn't have kids for a really long time. Genesis chapter 15 verses 5 through 6 says, Then the Lord took Abraham outside and said to him, Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That's how many descendants you will have. And Abraham believed the Lord and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith. So God told Abraham that he would have a child and because Abraham believed God, he was made in right standing with God. He told Sarah about it and so the waiting process began. A waiting season can be painful and the lies that the enemy tells you are targeted towards your trust in God and the promises of God. Sarah became impatient with God to fulfill his promise and she took control of the situation, disobeying God. Sarah tells her husband to sleep with her slave girl who becomes pregnant. This caused serious problems in their marriage but also in years to come. Proverbs chapter 3 verses 5 through 6 says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do and He will show you which path to take. That means you choose to trust in God with everything. You include Him when you're making decisions. Trust that He will lead you and that He wants only the best for you. It's important to not depend on your own understanding because it's limited. You can't see the whole picture. It's as if you were in a maze and God who is able to see the way out is guiding you. Sarah wasn't trusting God. She was depending on her own understanding and wanted to make things happen on her own time. Proverbs chapter 13 verse 12 says, Hope deferred makes the heart sick but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life. After so many years of waiting and no child, Sarah probably felt discouraged, disappointed, bitter. Even after Sarah's disobedience, God tells her that He will still keep His promise to her. She laughs because she's way past the age of becoming pregnant and God calls her out on her disbelief. Out of fear, she denied it. Even after Sarah's faithlessness, God was faithful and fulfilled His promise. Their baby Isaac was born when Abraham was a hundred years old. Sarah didn't trust God with the process. She probably felt anxious and thought she had to make it happen in her own way. Maybe she thought, God forgot about me or God needs some help. Anxiety will get in the way of trusting the process. Anxiety tells you that you're alone and that you have to protect yourself and control your future. Anxiety tells you that you can't rely on God or others, that you can only depend on yourself. Anxiety causes you to overthink things and sometimes can feel like you can't shut off your mind or like you're just thinking about something in a cycle with no solution. Anxiety causes you to avoid a situation, a place or people. Anxiety will turn into physical symptoms like nail biting, feeling dizzy, having a hard time sleeping, having a hundred things on your mind, having a hard time making a decision, feeling tension in your shoulders or other parts of your body, feeling overwhelmed, having stomach issues. Breaking free from anxiety can be hard. So I created an anxiety guide to help you. I'll share more information about that in a little bit. Now there was another woman in the Bible that also faced a pretty scary situation that would have caused anybody anxiety. In 1 Kings 17, the Bible mentions the widow of Zarephath who helped the prophet Elijah. So the story starts with Elijah who had run out of food and water and God told him to head over to this area because a widow would feed him. Elijah did as God said and he saw the widow and asked her to bring him some water and food. She said, I'm running low on ingredients. I was going to make one last meal to eat with my son and die. Elijah told the widow to not be afraid to go home, cook, but bring him the first meal and then she could make some for her and her son. Wait, what? This is a hard ask. As a mom, I can understand how this would have been pretty scary to make Elijah a meal with the last ingredients that she had instead of making it for her son, but she had faith that God would come through and He sure did. It says that they kept eating and the food didn't run out. She conquered her fear by walking through it and God met her on the other side of her obedience. She trusted the process even when it didn't make sense. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 7 says, for we walk by faith, not by sight. God never fails. He is always faithful. In 2021, Elias and I were still living in Miami, Florida. We were thinking of moving to Tennessee and I had mixed emotions from excitement to fear because we would be leaving behind our close friends and my family. We didn't know anyone in Tennessee, but we also felt restless staying there. It's as if we knew a change is coming, but we just didn't know when or where, but we were asking God to send us where He wanted. We didn't know for sure if Tennessee was it, so we decided to visit and I remember the day that I was at the Miami airport and I had to board the gate. I came across two gates. One said Knoxville, the other said Charleston. Now we had lived in Charleston for two years to spend time with Elias' family and then we had moved back to Miami. So when I saw those two gates, I felt God telling me, this was your past and this is your future. We trusted God and moved to Tennessee in November of 2021. Since then, I've seen how God has provided for us everything that we've needed and He's used us to help others. At times, of course, I felt anxious, but practicing my faith and trust in God has really helped. I want to show you a couple of ways of how to do that. Number one, in order to trust God with your current situation or the one to come, you need to get to know Him. It can be hard to trust someone that you don't know or someone that you think is going to judge you all the time. That's why it's so important that you listen to the Word of God because you'll learn more and more about His character and what He thinks and He says about you. Let me tell you a few things that He is. He is your provider that will provide for you whatever you need. He is your counselor who listens and guides you. He is your friend that cares about you. He is your creator who knows you, even the parts that you try to hide. He is your Heavenly Father who loves you and will never abandon or leave you. Number two, another practical way to help you trust God is to keep a record of when God provides for you, just to remind you of His faithfulness. I have a list on my phone for every time that God has provided for me so that when I forget that He is faithful to take care of every single need, I can look at it. Number three, here's the last one and it's something that we can do right now together. I'm going to lead you in a prayer exercise and I want you to just focus on my voice. I want you to put your hands out, right, and close your fists and then close your eyes. Imagine a situation or a person that made you feel like things were out of your control. Now take a deep breath through your nose and let it out slowly through your mouth. As you breathe, I want you to open your hands and surrender this to God. Knowing that God has your back, you are not alone. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much, God, for always being our comforter, our friend, our refuge, our strong tower, our safe place. I pray, Jesus, that the person listening right now may know that you are faithful, that you are trustworthy, that you love them deeply, unconditionally, that you have already paid for all of their mistakes, that there is nothing they can do, God, to separate you from the love of Christ and separate them, Lord, from your love. I pray, Father, that they may come to know you, that they just allow themselves to let you in so that they can taste and see that you are good. And I pray, Jesus, that you just free them, Lord, from any fears that they have right now, any worries. May they cast it onto you. May they surrender it, God, knowing that you will help them. And I pray, Jesus, that you renew their strength. Give them focus. Give them favor, Lord. Guide their footsteps. Thank you, God, that you and your word says, Lord, that we can cry out to you and you will listen to us. You will help us, God. Thank you for always being there for us. In your name we pray, amen. Thank you for joining me. I hope this message encouraged and refreshed you. I invite you to visit my website, TherapeceCounseling.org. We have more resources for you, including the free anxiety guide, an anxiety e-book, workshops, and my new book titled, I Am, Embracing My Identity as His Beloved Daughter. Until next time, take care and God bless.