“When Israel came out of Egypt,
Jacob from a people of foreign tongue,
Judah became God’s sanctuary.
Israel his dominion.”
Psalm 114:1-2 NIV

God has dominion. God is in control, even when it seems like He isn’t.

“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there neither male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
Galatians 3:26-29 NIV

Galatians was written to the Jewish people that were creating rules for the Gentile Christians. If we learn nothing else from history, we should learn the lesson that literally from the start of time, people want to use differences to exclude groups of people. Here, Paul is laying out for us the rules for being accepted by God. You need to have faith in Jesus. That’s it! So, we can stop with rhetoric that your belief in God allows you to discriminate against the LGBTQ+ community. When you come to faith, you loose the title that the world tries to give you and you are clothed in Christ! If you realize that your life requires the same grace, mercy, and favor as your neighbor, we should live in humility and love, instead of hate and prejudice. We are united by our Christian belief!

We have something that the world doesn’t have and that is that God has dominion. This world has suffering, but we can be assured that God is in control.

“The sea looked and fled,
the Jordan turned back;
the mountains leaped like rams,
the hills like lambs.”
Psalm 114:3-4 NIV

Israel is reflecting on the miracles that God performed on their behalf. We should reflect with gratitude on the way that God has shown up in our lives. God is good!

“Why was it, sea, that you fled?
Why, Jordan, did you turn back?
Why, mountains, did you leap like rams,
you, hills, like lambs?”
114:5-6 NIV

This is Israel reflecting on the power of God in their lives. We should reflect on God’s power in our lives.

“Tremble, earth, at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the God of Jacob,
who turned the rock into a pool,
the hard rock into springs of water.”
114:7-8 NIV

This! This is by far the biggest revelation! Rock is formed by water being removed from sediment. The very thing that lacks what you need, God uses to feed you. If we truly understand that, we can travel through any season of life.

“Not only so, but we glory in sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character; and character, hope.”
Romans 5:3-4 NIV

This world has sufferings; that is more than one; yikes! We go into suffering, knowing that there is a strengthening meant to happen. Our character is being strengthened. Perseverance is persistence in doing something despite its difficulty.
The goal is hope! We come out on the other side of the season with our belief in God strengthened. How do we do this? We increase our ability to sit in discomfort and feel and identify our feelings. We let go of the stories we tell ourselves. Suffering becomes trauma when we make the hard season mean something about who we are as a person. We don’t experience harm and pain because there is something about who we are as a person that makes us deserve harm and mistreatment. Everybody in the entire world experiences sufferings.
We have something that the world doesn’t have. Our belief in God! We go into the hard seasons knowing that every season of life, we are supposed to be fed. God fed Israel from a rock. The difficulties of life are meant to add to our personhood. They are meant for us to examine our triggers, our traumas, and pain; we are meant to confront our fears; and to do away with all the things in life that are holding us hostage.
You are meant to come out of the hard seasons of life full of hope!