Be Salt & Light Blog | By Jaymi Firestone

Spotify is my go-to music source, and I’ve gotten into a habit of listening to it while I work. They have radio stations to listen to, and yesterday as I clicked around on the computer, I decided to listen to the country station.

Normally it plays songs by artists who are current in country music like Luke Bryan or Miranda Lambert. Today though, some of the classics came on. In the midst of the Brooks and Dunn and John Michael Montgomery, a song was played that I’ve heard many times before. With the silence of my office looming though, I was able to actually focus on the words.

The song was “Anyway” by Martina McBride. I’m sure you’ve heard this song a million times, but maybe you’re like me and haven’t realized how powerful the lyrics are. The boldness they encourage are encouraging. So, before I continue, I urge you to take a moment to have a little refresh of your memory, and listen to the song, but more importantly, focus on what it’s saying.

The lyrics to the chorus are as follows:

God is great, but sometimes life ain’t good. And when I pray, it doesn’t always turn out like I think it should, but I do it anyway. 

God is great.

I spend the majority of my time writing, singing, and talking about how great He is. But let’s be real, life isn’t always good. There are struggles. Life sucks sometimes.

We definitely aren’t immune to being hurt, disappointed, betrayed, let down, or discouraged. Life isn’t at all the cushy easy-going walk in the park we’d all love to have. It’s a challenge. Some days it’s hard to even get out of bed when we are in the midst of our toughest battles. 

God didn’t tell us life would be easy though, in fact, He warned us that life would be hard. He allows it so that our faith can be tested. He wants us to seek Him above all else, and trust that He will overcome anything in our way.

“For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”

‭‭James‬ ‭1:3-4‬ ‭

We often forget that God isn’t the one causing the struggles in our lives, but rather it is Satan. Only good things come from our God. So anything bad needs to be attributed to the evil one. Give him credit where it is due! 

I’ve said it before, this world is Satan’s playground and he uses everything in our lives to try and trip us up and cause us to stumble. The pain we feel, the times when life isn’t good, all comes from Satan. That’s when we have to realize God is there to help us through those things. 

God sent Jesus to die for us, and in that moment when He rose from the dead, He overcame this world (John 16:33). So even though we face struggles in this world, and we endure tough situations when life really isn’t that great, we have to remember God is, and that He is there for us. That’s when we have to trust Him the most. 

Our prayers don’t always turn out like we think they should, but we have to pray anyway. God doesn’t always fix things like we think He should, but we have to trust Him anyway. We can’t live life scared because life isn’t always good. Because no matter what life has in store for us, God is great! 

So…Dream anyway. Love anyway. Live anyway. 

Do it anyway, because God is right there with you!