God is Good: When Life Turns Upside Down and God is the Only One Who Understands

*This is my testimony that I gave at ladies retreat this past Saturday. Our theme was, Taste and See the Lord is Good. Obviously this is not how it came out at the retreat because I strayed from my notes, bad Kendra! I don't like doing that because it doesn't make me feel eloquent at all! I’ve sat down many times over the last couple of months to work on what I am going to say…I have cried many tears hoping to have shed them all by now. I still don’t know 100% what I am to say and there are still tears to shed because my life has been turned upside down and God really is the only One that understands. Everyday it seems we face obstacles, things that hinder us from completing our to do list, from having our time with the Lord to not getting the housework done, or the errands completed. Have you ever had that kind of day? Nothing seems to be going right and you wish you could just go back to bed and hide under the covers. But there are days that sometimes we just can’t seem to recover from, it takes time to to recover from financial loss, a death of a loved one, cancer, infertility…my life was turned upside down in December and I’m still waiting for God to turn it upright once again. I know when He does turn it things still will not ever be the same, I hope to become better because of these days and more in love with Christ. What do you do in these times? For me I started claiming a Bible verse, Psalm 34:4, "I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. But have you ever experienced a time when that hope your clinging to seems to disappear. What do you do? Unfortunately, for me I felt as if God had forsaken me, did He really understand? What do I do now? My family and friends don't understand, I don't understand...you choose to still listen. You realize there's more to the story. Often times as Christians we read a verse; but forget to read the verses prior or the verses after. So, if you choose to cling to a verse-get to know it inside and out! See, I didn't even realize our theme verse was in the passage! Ha! After I claimed the verse and it fell through, I was done with that passage. When I finally decided to keep reading, I read our theme verse, Psalm 34:8, "O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him". Taste and see, it's a command and with all commands we have a choice... obey or disobey. And the reward to taste and see the Lord is good, is blessings. Now it doesn't mean our life will be turned right side up immediately because of our obedience. But can you imagine the blessing of being able to cling to what the Lord has for us when everything else is spinning out of control? So, choose to listen, even when you feel God has forsaken you He is still speaking and has something to say to you. As I continued reading the passage, I read Psalm 34:20, "He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken". Bones are the promises that have never been broken, just because I'm weak does not mean his promises are weak. When life has turned upside down and no one understands but God, cling to His promises! I admit when things are seemingly on a downward spiral its not always easy to remember; but I am choosing to cling to my Lord and know that God is good!