This week, God has brought me to His altar and to my knees. I feel like someone in those movies who is in the midst of a huge fiery explosion and then, just when the audience loses all hope, emerges from the fire unscathed. This is God's faithfulness.

Although it felt like the enemy's flaming arrows were coming from all directions and too innumerable to dodge, the Lord did not allow a single hair on my head to be harmed, just as He promises.

"You will be hated by all for my name's sake. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives."
Luke 21:17-19

God is faithful and true. He acts on His promises if we choose to claim them. Through this week, in times of despair I found that Psalm 49 pointed me towards the truth that He is an ever-present help in our troubles. When I was caught in a whirlwind of hopelessness, the Lord gently reminded me to be still and worship. Although I have by no means perfected this, the Lord has shown me time and time again that He is worthy of our complete trust and obedience.

Just a few weeks ago I was reading a devotion about faith. It described 3 different kinds of faith: 1.) acting on faith when there's evidence, 2.) choosing to have faith when we feel it, or 3.) choosing to step out in faith even though the world and our emotions tell us otherwise. As I read that, believing I was stepping out in the third and most obedient kind of faith, I didn't realize how much more God wanted to teach me about it. Throughout the whole situation, even though I did not believe it at the time, God was teaching me a lesson about what faith actually looks like.

So often, I feel like my "Christian walk" better glorifies God when I feel completely inadequate. When I finally come to the end of myself, I'm emptied, reliant, and broken at his feet. But it's in those times of weakness where the words of Paul reign true: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness..."

Lord, help me to remember that being broken at your feet is far better than being whole on my own throne.