“Through It All” was written by Andre Crouch. He declared that it was his trials that came to make him strong, and caused him to depend upon God’s word. The talents that the Lord gave us to invest for Him, will be refined through every situation in our lives.

We miss that truth when we keep looking back to our fears based on our past. Dwelling in that fear, instead of the stillness of trust, we hid our talents. Lot’s wife looked back and remained a pillar of salt (Genesis 19:26).

Jesus’ words in Luke 9:62 need to ring in our ears every time we start to entertain negative thoughts from our past. It says, “…No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” 

We cannot plow a straight furrow while looking back at the same time. Endurance requires our thoughts, purpose, and actions to be fixed on the Lord. Years ago I was called to the ER to pray for a friend. Her heart had stopped in flight from Lake Tahoe to Reno. 

When I arrived they were starting to put a picc line into her heart. There were machinery noises, lights blinking, and a scurry of folks moving around. My friend’s eyes were fixed. Nothing affected her. The Lord spoke this to my heart: that is what I mean when I say to you to fix your eyes on Me~don’t let anything distract you.

Hebrews 10:35 says, “For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.” What talent has the Lord given you that you have hidden because of your fears based on the past?

You can read the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14:29. The talent-gifts the Lord has given each one of us are for investment in His Kingdom. Two servants in Jesus’ parable were commended because of their investments. 

The servant who hid his talent was called wicked and lazy. The talent that he had was taken from him. Verse 28 says, “Therefore take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents.”

Job 42:2 says, “I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.” Ephesians 1:11 says, “…being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.”

The things that have happened in our past, are part of His purpose. In that purpose, like with Joseph, the Lord will use our adversities as His training tools to mold us and shape us to fulfill His purpose for our lives.

The enemy of our soul wants to use every thing that we might consider negative as his tool to defeat God’s purpose in our lives. 2 Corinthians stated an absolute truth that we can stand in.

It says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” Our past is passed. We cannot go back and change one thought, nor one action that we took or that others took. Solid, irrefutable, and unchangeable truth that we need to acknowledge.

Again I want to go to a reference in Psalm 105 about Joseph. Verse 18-19 says, “They hurt his feet with fetters, he was laid in irons. Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him.”

This gives heart-significance to the trials that I am in and have been through. They are essential components in His training me for the ministry He has called me to. It is also a great definition of our progressive sanctification.

The operative word is progressive. It has a beginning, and a progression that leads to the end God has intended. James 5:11 says, “Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and see the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.”

I have noticed in my years of counseling that folks tend to hide their talent-gifts because of lingering fears generated from their pasts. Matthew 25:25 documents the root for us. The servant who hid his talent said, “And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground…”

The talent-gifts that the Lord gives each of us to invest for Him, are part of our spiritual DNA. They are the good works in Ephesians 2:10 which says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”    

As I stepped onto my trampoline this morning, I looked at my parent’s pictures. I thanked the Lord again for them, but it continued in my mind. I want to share this with you as an example, and encourage you to thank the Lord for your own life~good, bad, and ugly.

Father God, thank You for all the myriad events You orchestrated in my life. You have been in charge from the moment You placed my tiny seed of conception into my mother’s womb until now. Nothing has taken place except what You preordained to happen.

Everything has been essential and strategic ~ the sum total of who I am today. Not one nuance of rejection nor any traumatic event has been in vain. The hardships and pressures always came through Your loving hands. They were absolutely essential to fulfill Your purpose for my life.

In my lack of understanding, I have not always been grateful. My hidden rebellion resisted Your work time and time again. I marvel now at Your grace, mercy, unending love, and patience. Thank You for Your forgiveness. I have often sinned against You through my evil heart of unbelief. Thank You for eternally separating me from my sins~as far as the east is from the west.

Thank You for being the Perfect One~filling in where others failed to exemplify You. Their sins crushed my spirit, and I allowed resentment seeds to flourish. Thank You for setting me free from years of self-hatred and self-rejection. Jesus’ shed blood has cleansed me from the stain of all sins done against me, as well as my own. Lord Jesus, I am grateful beyond words. My life is truly Yours.

I recently moved into a rental. I had to downsize from 1460 square feet to 450 square feet. The things I kept are mostly essentials. However, I have lots of wall space here, so all of my pictures are displayed except for two.

I placed my parent’s picture so that I could see them each morning. In my other home I sometimes glanced at them as I walked by. Since their new place on my wall now, I have been thanking the Lord for them. They have great smiles. A few mornings ago I began to realize a deep stirring in my heart.

I would not be here if it was not for them. They were His intended vehicle to give me life. He created me (Jeremiah 1:5) as He knew me, strategically placing me in my mother’s womb. This morning I had that knowing in my heart that every single incident in my life was His essential for me. Each had a part in His training me for what He has called me to do. Not one was in vain.

Do you also realize that every situation you have ever been in up to this point is purposeful, strategic, and essential? Nothing is in vain because He redeems it all! In God’s Sovereign plan for our lives, everything that He has allowed is part of our spiritual DNA. We can sincerely echo Joseph’s words to his brothers. In Genesis 50:20 he said, “…you meant it for evil against me; but God meant it for good…”

Jesus promised that to those who kept His word, He would personally reveal Himself to them. How does He do that today? The Holy Spirit illuminates His word to our hearts. 1 Corinthians 2:10 Amplified says, “Yet to us God has unveiled and revealed them by and through His Spirit, for the (Holy) Spirit searches diligently, exploring and examining everything, even sounding the profound and bottomless things of God (the divine counsels and things hidden and beyond man’s scrutiny).”

Think back a moment to Paul’s prayer for the folks in the Ephesus church. In Ephesians 1:18 he prayed that, “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.” 

The Greek word for know is to remember and appreciate. This is achieved as we ‘have His commandments and keep them.’ We exhibit our appreciation by rehearsing His word back to Him. He loves to hear His words from our lips.

Do you remember the parable of the hidden talent? Matthew 25:29 says, “for to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even, what he has will be taken away.” In verse 30 he was called unprofitable.

God has hidden truths in His word. Part of our progressive sanctification is to mine them from Scripture. Psalm 25:14 Amplified revealed the power of intimate communion with the Lord. It says, “The secret (of the sweet, satisfying companionship) of the Lord have they who fear (revere and worship) Him,, and He will show them its ((deep, inner) meaning.” 

1 Corinthians 2:7-8 revealed a hidden truth. It says, “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”

We know because Scripture revealed it time and time again. Jesus gave a scathing rebuke to the Pharisees. They were the teachers of the Law. John 5:39-40 says, “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.”

John 6:36 says, “But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe.” Verse 37 is great assurance for us. It should have been for them also. It says, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.”

Yet, because they did not believe and go to the Lord, the truth of His word was hidden from them. His cross was the enemy’s destruction. Colossians 2:15 says, “Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.”

Here is the truth for us that highlights a condition to God’s promise. John 14:21 says, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”

Isaiah 59:19 says, “So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun; when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.”

God’s standard is His word. When it is hidden in our heart, we can instantly latch onto it in our thoughts, and speak it out loud with our mouths. Psalm 149:6 says, “Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand.”

We will never be shaken by our adverse circumstances when we stand in the Rock Of Our Salvation. Steadfast. Immoveable. Impenetrable. Psalm 62:11 says, “God has spoken once, twice I have heard this: that power belongs to God.”

God is All Powerful. That means that no one and no thing has any power. It is all His. He gives us His power through His name. Daniel 11:32 says, “Those who do wickedly against the covenant he shall corrupt with flattery; but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.”

I love this verse. Jeremiah 33:4 says, “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do now know.” When we are still before Him, we learn His character because He reveals His heart.

The word ‘mighty’ in Hebrew means isolated or inaccessible. The insights that the Lord reveals through our intimate communion with Him, is not accessible to the enemy of our soul.

At all times and in every situation the Lord is in control. Psalm 46:1 says, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” It is in the midst of trouble that we often find our mind careening from one frantic thought to another.

The definition for careen is to move swiftly and in an uncontrolled way in a specified direction. We alone are in control of our thoughts. David wrote Psalm 131. Verse 2 is a stillness discipline that we need to employ as well.

It says, “Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with his mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.” In the midst of adversity, we can instantly still our heart when we set our gaze upon the Lord who is always reigning in righteousness.

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? 

Here is another Psalm that David wrote. I like to embrace it as my heart’s cry when I am feeling overwhelmed. Psalm 61:1-2 says, “Hear my cry, O God; attend to my prayer. From the end of the earth I will cry to You, when my heart is overwhelmed; lead me to the rock that is higher than I.”

David was acknowledging that he needed God to be his Solidity in the raging storm of his overwhelming circumstances. Verse 3 says, “For You have been a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy.”

Psalm 2:1-2 says, “Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and again His anointed…” Does it sound like our day?

Psalm 97:9 says, “For You, Lord, are most high above all the earth; You are exalted far above all gods.” When my day seems blocked at every turn, or I get into a hard situation, I have learned to pronounce, “You are Lord Over All.” It helps me to recenter on the Lord.

In March of 2017, I was staying in my cousin’s travel trailer at an RV Park. I had just discovered that my mobile’s air was contaminated with live mold spores. They were wreaking havoc on my health.

That particular day I had taken my trash to the dumpster. It was cold outside, but I was only going to be gone a minute. When I came back to go inside again, the door was locked. I thought, “It’s ok. I’ll just get the spare key.” The spare key was not where my cousin told me it would be.

I had little strength, it was cold, and I had no cell phone with me. That morning I had drawn some warfare art that had “You are Lord Over All” highlighted and squared. I began to speak that truth as I wandered through the RV Park looking for a person who might be able to help me. The Lord led me to a kind man who loaned me his cell to call my cousin.