We are experiencing troubled and fearful times. People are losing their jobs and their homes and wondering how they are going to survive or where they are going to live. It is very stressful for those that are dealing with losses right now, and stressful thinking "I could be next." Life can be full of uncertainty and fear. It is in these times we especially need to turn to God and rely on Him to care for us and our needs. Psalm 50:15 says, "Then call on me when you are in trouble and I will rescue you, and you will give me glory."

In my daily devotional, the author writes, "There may be times when God allows you to reach a point of need so that you can call upon Him, and thus let Him demonstrate to a watching world the difference He makes in the lives of His children. If God never allowed you to experience need, people around you might never have the opportunity to witness God's provision in the life of a Christian."

All of us can recall a need that caused us to call on God and remember how He used that experience to change our lives and maybe even the lives of others. The needs in other people's lives give us an opportunity to help them in their time of trouble and even be a period of reprieve from our own needs. It usually seems that no matter how bad things seem to be for us, there is always someone else who has much worse things they are dealing with.

Members of our own church family are in the midst of experiencing a personal need like needing a job, trying to pay bills, wanting to tithe more and can’t right now, or are caring for loved ones that are ill. We are experiencing needs with our church. We need enough money to come in to cover our expenses and budget, a new parking lot, more building space, a new sound system, and a new dishwasher, to name a few. I then compare those "needs" to what God has already provided for us here at Libertyville Covenant Church. He has provided:

• A Pastor to teach us and lead us
  
• People who volunteer their time and talents to council and committees
  
• A wonderful pastoral and administrative staff
  
• A building to worship in
  
• A loving and supportive church family
  
• Very charitable and giving people
  
• Dedicated volunteers for our pro-grams for youth and adults
  
• Musical and drama talent
  
• Free supplies for our Prayer Shawl Ministry
  
• Volunteers for Outreach like PADS, the furniture ministry and clothing closet
  
• Small groups & bible studies to grow in
  
• And the list goes on.

Although the needs I mentioned before are important, I feel so blessed by what God has already provided and realize in these stressful and fearful times, "it could always be worse." How important are our needs when compared to what God has already given us? Do we have the faith and patience to go through hard times and see what God’s plan actually is for us? Maybe there are reasons we have been challenged by the "bumps in the road" with the building expansion. Is it possible that God has a different plan for Libertyville Covenant? Ultimately, it's having faith that He will lead us and guide us through the process as it continues.

I do believe that God lets us experience difficult and troubled times in our lives to draw us closer to him. I will always be grateful to Him for allowing my divorce to happen. As hard as that experience was in my life, He has used it to bless me in so many ways. I am grateful to Him for not allowing me to have the children I wanted so desperately. He knew I would not be a good single parent and instead blessed me with four wonderful God-daughters. I am also grateful to Him for allowing me to lose a job so that I would end up with a much better one that I still have 14 years later. These difficult experiences have taught me that when I let God be in control of my life, He knows what is best and has something better to offer. By allowing me to have those troubled times in my life, He can use me to help reach out to others who have had or are having the same experiences.

We are living in scary times. We are surrounded by uncertainty and fear. We don't know if tomorrow we will lose our job, lose our home to flood or fire, if we will lose our retirement or lose a loved one. There seems to be so much evil in the world with terrorism, missiles being launched, pirates taking ships and people hostage, children being kidnapped and murdered. In spite of all this evil, what we know as Christians to be true is that we have the freedom and the choice to believe in and worship a loving God who is our Lord and Savior. Someone who loves us so much that He sent His own son to die on the cross to forgive us of all our sins. Someone that delivers us from all evil and carries us through troubled times if we call on Him. I don't want to live a life of fear. I am choosing to trust in God and try to live a life that will honor Him in good times and bad times. What will you choose?

We may not want hard and troubled times to come into our lives, but if we realize that God is in control and that He does have a plan for each of our lives, we know the eventual outcome will draw us closer to Him and that others around us will have the opportunity to witness God's provisions in the life of a Christian and that will bring Him glory.