“Take the shackles off my feet so I can dance!
I just want to praise You!  I just want to praise You!
You broke the chains now I can lift my hands!
I just want to praise You! I just want to praise You!”

This song by Mary Mary has been one of my all time favorite praise songs since I was in high school!  As the years go by, the words have taken an even deeper meaning for me as I had to journey through life’s challenges and valleys.

“Everything that could go wrong
all went wrong at one time
so much pressure fell on me
thought I was gonna lose my mind
but Lord I know You wanna see
if I will hold on through these trials
but I need you to lift this load
cause I can’t take it no more”

We’ve all been there right?  When everything thing that could possibly go wrong does.  But you know what?  Even then, in our darkest hour, God is is with us.  Even when we feel alone and abandoned, the Lord is right there beside us.

“Been through the fire and the rain
bound in every kind of way
but God has broken every chain
so let me go right now”

Revelations 2:10 (NIV) Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.

James 1:2-3 (NIV) Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

In these past 6 months, I had to leave all that I have ever known because I was not safe there.  And the Lord has provided for me and my family beyond what I could ever have imagined.  I did not step out in faith.  I leapt.  I jumped because I had to and the Lord caught me and has kept me safe.  This is what it means to trust in the Lord and not rely on your own understanding or knowledge.

Isaiah 55:11 (MSG) “I don’t think the way you think. The way you work isn’t the way I work.” God’s Decree. “For as the sky soars high above earth, so the way I work surpasses the way you work, and the way I think is beyond the way you think. Just as rain and snow descend from the skies and don’t go back until they’ve watered the earth, Doing their work of making things grow and blossom, producing seed for farmers and food for the hungry, So will the words that come out of my mouth not come back empty-handed. They’ll do the work I sent them to do, they’ll complete the assignment I gave them.

So, whoever you are and wherever you are in this life, all that I can say to you, from one child of God to another, is that God is there for you now and forever.  Amen.