“I sought the Lord, and he answered me and rescued me from all my fears.” (Psalm 34:4)
 
Some people might say that there is nothing to fear. President Roosevelt in his inaugural address even stated, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” The phrase was used to inspire and invoke confidence spurring individuals into action. The vision that everyone can conquer their fears. We are all afraid of something spiders lurking in corners, the dark, receiving negative test results, or even the future.

Many of our fears are situations that have not happened yet but could be a possibility. When we think of fears in the future, we start planning what to do. No matter how much we plan it does not get rid of our fears. The only true rescue comes from seeking the Lord. We can bring our fears to the Lord for he hears us and will answer. God is our ultimate rescuer, and we can seek him during all things.
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Seek the Lord he is waiting to hear from you and deliver you from your fears. You do not have to everything together to come before God. God isn’t waiting for you to have your life together. He just wants us. To love you and cherish you as his son or daughter.
 
Heavenly Father, may we continue to seek you in times of desperation and when life is good. God, we thank you that we can always come to you.
 
Walking with you,
Stacy Watkins

“I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips.” (Psalm 34:1)
 
The world can feel completely hectic at times. The past week there has been hurricanes that have hit countries and left hundreds of people without homes, earthquakes that blocked roadways leading to flooding, and even unexpected fires. During these times we can question is there a God? Why is God not helping me? Or even how can I find joy in this moment?

The good news is that God has never left you. He’s right there with you in the struggle. When we praise God in the middle of our struggle we find peace. Praise reminds us that the situation that we are currently in is not our end story. There is more waiting for you. There are several ways we can praise God during our struggles we can sing songs, pray, and even practice gratitude during the situation.

When we shift our mind from the negative of what is going wrong to gratitude not only is there a shift in our mind, but our spirit. We can see things in a new light and have hope in dark moments. We can continue to place our hope in God for He is with us even in our struggle.
 
Heavenly Father, may we sing praises to you even in our darkest times.
 
Walking with you,
Stacy Watkins

“And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful.” (Colossians 3:15)
 
Gratitude is an individual choice. We can walk through life complaining that there is nothing to be grateful for because of our life circumstance. Where we want to be may seem completely out of reach, because of our financial or relationship situations we forget that there are parts of our lives that we can be grateful for.

There are several things in life that we do not think about being grateful for: gravity, if there was not gravity we would just float into the atmosphere. The earth for continuing rotating without us even having to worry about it. If God did not keep the earth from rotating, there would be catastrophic consequences our days could become longer, and the weather would drastically change. We can thank God that we do not need to worry about floating off the planet because there is gravity that keeps us grounded. We can thank God that we are not in charge of making sure that earth keeps rotating. Someone might forget unless it’s on their daily checklist.

Everyday there are small things that we can think to be thankful for. We can be thankful that we are alive and get to live this day, since we will never live this day again. We can be grateful for the people who influence us each day and continue to encourage us to do better. We can be thankful that we have savior that died for our sins on the cross so that we can have a right relationship with God. When we learn to be grateful and thankful we find ways to enjoy life even when we do not have much.
 
Heavenly Father, sometimes it is hard to be grateful when I am blinded with situation that is right in front me. Help me to take time each day to become grateful for everything that surrounds me.
 
Praying for you,
Stacy Watkins