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Let’s talk about how to turn your trial into testimony! From marriage struggles to financial burdens to physical and emotional health problems, this life is nothing short of a series of hills and valleys, and I would imagine that you’re no stranger to walking through some trials. You’re human, after all! It can be really easy to get lost in the spiral of negative thinking, or the “woe is me” mentality, the “this is never gonna get better” mentality, or the “I’m a victim, why do bad things always happen to me?” mentality. It really can be easy to do that when it feels like the world is raining down on you.
But today, I want you to flip the script with me. I want you to consider the possibility that your set back… is actually a set up. A set up for good. A set up for impact. I want you to consider that your trial could actually become your TESTIMONY. I want you to think about ways that your story, what you’re walking through right now, could be used for God’s glory. How could it be used, or shared with someone else to help turn their life around? Will you go there with me?
I know what you’re already thinking. You’re thinking one of three things… either “alright, Katie, I’ll go along with you and play this out,” or “Katie, you have me intrigued, but confused. Where the heck are you going with this?”
or “Katie, how could you for one second make light of what I’m going through?”
Sweet friend, I want you to know that whatever you’re going through right now, you’re not alone. I’ve been through some crazy stuff myself over here, marriage struggles, financial hell, emotional and mental battles with anxiety and health problems including a time when my tongue became partially paralyzed after a surgical procedure. While I may or may not have suffered through the exact thing that’s weighing heavy on your heart right now, I promise you that someone has, sweet friend.
We were promised that we would ALL walk through trials in this life. In John 16:33, Jesus said “In the world you will have tribulation…”
Sister, the truth is that you’re either IN the valley so to speak, you’re coming OUT of the valley, you’re on the proverbial mountain top of life and things are going great right now, or you’re headed back into another valley. It’s cyclic and… it’s life.
There’s good news in that the trial that you’re currently walking through, the valley season that you’re in right now? It’s NOT your final destination and God’s not finished with you yet. Your mountain top season is coming, sweet friend!
Let’s talk about those tough seasons that we walk through. I believe we go through them for one of three reasons and I want to share some examples from my own life with you.
The first reason that we walk through valley seasons is because we are being refined and grown into the person that God created us to be. When we’re in the valley, when we’re really uncomfortable, that’s when we grow the most! It’s when we hit our knees and look up. It’s when we lean in deep to our relationship with our Heavenly Father.
He wants that for us and with us all the time! But if we’re being honest with ourselves, most of us have gone days without talking to the Lord when things are smooth sailing. I’ll be the first one to admit that.
You walk through the fire though, and that’s when we come to our knees and cry for help like the children that we are… and that’s not a bad thing!
Sometimes, God will use a valley season or a trial to help us understand that we’ve GOT to take our eyes off the storm and fix our gaze on HIM!
Let’s take a look at Matthew 14:22-32. I absolutely love this. It says…
Immediately he (Jesus) made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. After dismissing the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. Well into the night, he was there alone.
Meanwhile, the boat was already some distance from land, battered by the waves, because the wind was against it. Jesus came toward them (the disciples) walking on the sea very early in the morning.
When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost!” they said, and they cried out in fear.
Immediately Jesus spoke to them. “Have courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter answered him, “command me to come to you on the water.”
He said, “Come.”
And climbing out of the boat, Peter started walking on the water and came toward Jesus.
But when he saw the strength of the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me!”
Immediately Jesus reached out his hand, caught hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”
When they got into the boat, the wind ceased.
……….
Did you notice how the minute that Peter moved his eyes off of Jesus and onto the storm, he began to sink?
Some of you are so fixated on your problem, on your storm, that you wouldn’t know the solution or the problem SOLVER if he hit you between the eyes! It’s true! Take your eyes OFF the problem and fix them on the solution. You know what the solution is? It’s the problem SOLVER! It’s the healer, the one who holds you, the one who can shoulder what you’re going through!
We’ve got to take our eyes OFF the storm and fix them on JESUS!
That may be the entire reason that we’re walking through this trial in the first place. God is saying “hey child, I want to protect you, to love you, to save you. Fix your eyes on me. Draw near to me.”
I feel this on such a personal level. My husband and I once walked through a season of financial hell that was unlike anything else I’d ever experienced in this life. Like I struggled to breathe some days. Our marriage almost crumbled. We had no other choice but to momentarily live on credit cards. We were SO focused on our storm. And we were sinking fast.
You can hear the whole story about that crazy season of our life back in episode #19.
Finally though, we came to this place where we realized there was no way we were making it out alive, other than by the grace of God. So we hit our knees hard and often, we looked up, we cried out… I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the painting where Jesus is reaching his hand down through the water to save a drowning soul, but that’s exactly what happened to us. That’s exactly what it felt like! We looked up to him, then he reached down and pulled us up from the depths, and little by little he showed us our next steps forward, one step at a time.
It seriously felt like we were crawling through fire AND drowning AND being crushed, all simultaneously as we walked through that deep, dark valley. It was one of the most trying times of our entire married life. But we were being refined. We were growing and learning things like we never had before. Every season holds either a blessing or a lesson. That season held a lesson! Lesson(s) actually. Lessons that, honestly, we desperately needed to learn. And I’ll be honest, that season and those lessons, they were painful! But pain and suffering can be great teachers. Suffering produces endurance. James 1:2-3 says “Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.” Endurance is a muscle that we all need to develop! Sometimes, developing muscle can be painful, but it’s necessary!
I look back on that season of our life with so much gratitude. I truly mean that. God was so near to us and he never left us as we walked through that valley season. We suffered and we endured and we gained wisdom and we grew in our relationship with the Lord and with each other. That trial became a big part of our testimony and God continues to use it for GOOD.
The second reason we experience setbacks in our life, I believe, is because God wants to use our story to help someone else and His glory will be revealed through that. Maybe you don’t see it yet, but it’s so possible that God is working through you to reach someone else, to change someone else’s life. We are all brothers and sisters, after all!
I see this with my personal testimony. You can find my story in episode #1 here on the podcast.
So often, when I share my story, people will tell me how it relates to some part of their life and they’ll pull parts from my story and it will help them in some way.
I count it as such a blessing when the challenging, heartbreaking part of our story is meant to help somebody else.
It reminds me that God can take something, bless it and multiply it and turn it into something good. I love how that relates to the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 in Matthew 14 verses 14-21.
It says…
When Jesus went ashore, he saw a large crowd, had compassion on them, and healed their sick.
When evening came, the disciples approached him and said, “This place is deserted, and it is already late. Send the crowds away so that they can go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”
“They don’t need to go away,” Jesus told them. “You give them something to eat.”
“But we only have five loaves and two fish here,” they said to him.
“Bring them here to me,” he said. Then he commanded the crowds to sit down on the grass. He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them. He broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.
Everyone ate and was satisfied. They picked up twelve baskets full of leftover pieces. Now those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
……….
We see that Jesus took what they had, blessed it and multiplied it and turned it into something good! God takes our broken and turns it into beautiful, He takes our mess and turns it into a message, He loves to use our story for his glory! Sometimes we just need to hand it over to Him, and get out of the way because He’s about to do something with our life, with our trial, with our valley season and bring about life change and blessing for a whole bunch of his children with it!
The third reason I believe we deal with trials in life is because when the enemy can see Kingdom Breakthrough coming, he will attack however and wherever he can. Satan gets the last mention and the least amount of credit here. Actually, he gets zero credit. Because he doesn’t win. God’s light and love will always prevail.
We do have to be vigilant though, because the Lord tells us to be.
1 Peter 5:8-9 says…
Be sober-minded, be alert. Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour. Resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same kind of sufferings are being experienced by your fellow believers throughout the world.
(I love how that reiterates that none of us are alone in our suffering.)
The devil will attack the area of your life where you are about to shine God‘s light…
In my own life, God calls me into the deep water of publicly speaking out his truth time and time again. A lot of what he’s called me to do is so far out of my comfort zone. He brings me to places where I could never possibly succeed without him. I love it because it keeps me ever mindful of how much I need him every single day! It’s exhilarating and sort of terrifying, all at the same time, which is why I know I’m exactly where he wants me to be.
Right before I started the blog, back in 2017 and 2018 I had a reactive lymph node removed from my neck and it left my tongue partially paralyzed… to the point that I was unable to speak clearly. Satan went to work attacking my mind. I questioned so many things during that painful season. I didn’t know whether I would ever speak or communicate clearly again. The devil knew there was massive amounts of Kingdom Breakthrough coming in the years ahead and he hit me hard, repeatedly, even speaking through some of the people that were closest to me.
After a lot of tears and long days of mental warfare, I’d finally had enough and I very publicly posted a video to Facebook declaring my healing in Jesus’ name. I honestly didn’t know whether my speech would be restored and whether I’d be healed by earthly standards or not, but I put it out there because the Bible says our words hold power. I knew in my heart that healing would come eventually, whether it was on earth or in Heaven.
Shortly after I posted that video, I was healed. My speech was restored and God called me to share my voice and his truths with the world, via a blog and this podcast which has had over 22,000 downloads and has reached 51 countries to date.
Satan is the father of lies and confusion. He doesn’t want clarity or breakthrough for any of God’s children, so when he sees it coming he starts planning his attack strategies. The good news for us is that we can be prepared. We can stand ready with the armor of God and the power of the Holy Spirit within us.
This is something I’m becoming more keenly aware of in my own life as I’ve identified my weak spots and the places I know Satan will attack. Before the podcast launched, Satan attacked my mind in conjunction with one area of my health, and then before I launched the Joy Filled Mama membership which is bringing unbelievable breakthrough to the mamas who are a part of it, Satan attacked again in the same places. When my 1:1 coaching program launched, he did the same thing again, in the same areas of my life. Seeing this pattern helps me confirm that it’s mental warfare coming from the enemy and helps me to stand more equipped, knowing what it is and knowing that my God is bigger!
When we are on the verge of breakthrough, or when we are about to do something amazing that will bring glory to God, the enemy will attack. He’s waiting, prowling, watching for an opportune time, but the good news is that what the enemy intends for evil, God will use for GOOD! When Christ dwells in our heart, we have the Holy Spirit power to bind up evil in the name of Jesus! And then we’re able to keep moving forward! Amen!
Let’s recap the three reasons why we may be walking through trials or setbacks in our life…
- God is refining us and drawing us closer to him.
- God wants to use our story as a means to help someone else.
- The enemy is attacking because he knows Kingdom breakthrough is coming!
Let’s tell the devil to go back to Hell where he belongs and focus on those first two. Both of those scenarios? They are the perfect set up for something good to happen! They are trial to testimony unfolding.
Your failure, your trial, that hard thing that you’re walking through… the thing that’s weighing heavily on you… You have a choice to make around that. No matter what the reasoning behind it, God gives us free choice.
We can choose to stay stuck in our setbacks or we can choose to learn from them. We can fixate on the problems or on the solutions and the problem solver. We can choose to grow from walking through hard things and we can share that experience to help others or we can with-drawl into a dark place of self pity and worry and anxiety and fear. I don’t know about you Sister, but I ain’t going there.
We only have this one, precious life and the Bible says it’s but a vapor. It’s here and gone.
Sweet friend, what would it look like in your life if you chose to view your set back as a set up for good? What would it look like if you let God transform your trial into testimony?
Whether you’re dealing with chronic pain or financial disaster or a marriage that’s on the rocks or some other hardship that life has thrown your way during this valley season…
Sister, you’re going to make it out alive. There isn’t one single thing that the Lord hasn’t brought you through yet… Think about it. If you’re still living and breathing, he’s brought you through every single curve ball that life has thrown your way. Our God is faithful! He promises that he won’t leave us.
Your set back? It’s a set up. It’s a setup for growth. It’s producing endurance. You’re being refined. You’re being set up for the good things to come.
Keep going, keep moving forward because right now you’re being set up for the mountain top season once your valley season has passed. This trial that you’re walking through? It’s going to change someone else’s life. It’s going to change YOUR life! It’s testimony, Sister. God’s transforming YOUR story into a testimony that will be used for HIS glory. Amen and Amen!
