There are times that regardless of how hard I try to stay positive, I begin to look at my circumstances, and my faith begins to waiver.

In these times, I begin to rely on the word that is hidden in my heart, and when I begin to take my eyes off of God,  I hear his words in my head, and they are a great comfort to me.

I have been blessed with some truly wonderful friendships here on Active Rain, and I want to let all of you who have been calling and emailing me know how grateful I am that you have been praying for me, and how awesome it is to have a God who can truly align hearts and like minds.

John 13: 34-35 says this: "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

Thank you for the love that you have shown to me, for your caring and concern, and for your prayers.

I just wanted to leave you with this illustration of faith that I received while I was praying this morning.

I have been hearing the Lord tell me that all that he requires of me in this time is to " Just Show Me That You Trust Me."

As I was meditating on these words, God showed me two perfect illustrations of what it means to truly trust him.

Our children are a wonderful reminder of the true faith that God calls us to have. Think about the unwavering faith they have in us when they are very small.  Our words are law to them. I learned a long time ago to be very careful with the promises that I would make to my children, because they had such faith in those promises. And like dear children, they had no shame in reminding us of those promises. In fact, they had no reservations in continually asking us to fulfill the promises that were made to them, and absolute faith that we would carry out and deliver what had been promised.

I also remembered a time when my daughter was very little. She had a "thing" about jumping off of high places. She loved to climb on the couch and jump off. Climb, climb, climb is what she would do all day long if I would allow her. One night as I was preparing dinner, she motioned for me to pick her up. Not skipping a beat, I scooped her into my arms and continued with what I was doing. After a while she began to squirm and wanted me to put her on the counter top so that she could sit and watch as I unloaded the dishwasher. Without thinking, I placed her on the counter top and as I turned away, I realized "Oh No! She's going to try to jump off" so I spun around and saw that, while she had been considering it, she was afraid to jump because it was too high.

My husband walked in around that time, and saw that my daughter was keeping me company in the kitchen. Walking over to my daughter, he held his hands out, and motioned for her to jump. Hesitant at first, I watched as my daughter looked at the distance from the counter to the floor, and then to her Dad. This went on for several minutes, as my husband tried to coax her to jump into his arms. Finally, my husband said "Don't worry, I'll catch you!" and with that, my daughter STOOD UP and leapt without any fear.

How many times has God gently told you "Don't worry...I'll catch you"?

Mark 10: 13 - 16

13People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them.

14When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

15I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."

16And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.

A person with child like faith means believing that God can absolutely do the impossible. In fact, it means having faith in God, the way that our children believe in us. That we can do anything! We must believe that he can do all things, according to his word.

Even as I write this, I hope that this message will encourage someone else to STAND UP AND JUMP WITHOUT FEAR. He WILL catch you. He caught me.

May your weeks be blessed, shaken down, and running over with his abundant grace!