CAN GOD BE TRUSTED?

Can God be trusted? A beautiful testimony of faith, courage and God’s grace by Catherine Muriithi; an amazing woman of God who lives and breathes Christ, who inspires many to passionately and relentlessly pursue God and who lives her life as a testimony of what God can do with a surrendered, submitted heart.

“Each time am giving my daughter who is eight months old a bath, the Holy Spirit is always quick to point out the kind of trust that she has in me. Even when I hold her in a dangerous position as am bathing her head (don’t ask questions if you never bathed a baby), she is always bubbly and excited, ready to get into the water, to splash it everywhere (yes, we are in the space of wetting the entire room when showering, story for another day).I remember the Holy Spirit nudged me once and I mentioned to my husband; Tumi trusts mum can’t drop her so she is looking forward to have fun while bathing.

Part of my great weakness as a choleric-sanguine is my desire to always be in charge of everything and more importantly my future. This was one of the tests that the Lord gave me when I surrendered my life to Jesus. What most of us do not realise is accepting Christ to be Lord is one thing and surrendering your life facets is another. So typically I held on to my relationship facet thinking God didn’t care about that one.

Little did I know He was planning a big one for me. One year down the line, am in this very working relationship with a friend I had met back in high school and in my mind I knew for sure this was it as we had discussed how we were going to settle down in a few years. Just as am getting comfortable and trusting God to help us achieve this, bang! God tells me that I need to leave the relationship….but God I thought you had good plans for my life, how now? I thought you were happy for me and you wanted your child to be happy..reeeeeally? He didn’t say it once, He kept repeating it until I had no peace. It was an uphill task even trying to mention it to my boyfriend then seeing we were happily dating and in love.

After about two months of disobedience and sharing with my close friend, God literally told me I have to choose between him and Him. When I tried to pray Him out of the idea, yeah right I did try to ask Him to change His mind but He kept referring me to His decision, Him or him. By His grace I managed to break off the relationship and I told God to do what He wanted with me.

The healing was not easy, it took a bit of time and He promised to heal my heart which felt somewhat broken, Psalms 147:3 “He heals the broken hearted and binds their wounds” became my scripture each time I was lonely. God who is kind and loving allowed me to heal and we started having some tough conversations. He started by pointing out my dysfunctional relationship with my dad which had been ailed by my rebellious nature before I met Christ. It seemed irreparable, we only spoke when we had to and I would go for weeks without saying hi to him. The Lord pointed out to me He desired to make me malleable to His will on my relationship with men. He said I was not even ready to get married if I could not even hold a relationship with my dad.

All this while am in campus where life is happening, guys are hitting on me, my friends are getting hook ups each day and here I am, staying single, we (God and yours truly) agreed on a two year period for this tutorship. God was intentional and meant business, in that season He brought to me about three people who seriously mentored me on what a godly marriage meant. I started spending so much time in prayer and in reading the word of God. In a short time, my heart had completely healed and I felt a deep reconnection with my father and I soon started recognising him as the head of our home. My relationship with him tremendously improved and now I could serve him a cup of tea without feeling like “doesn’t he have hands of his own.” God brought my way some serious women fellowships and as I went there I got more and more shaped. My perspective on submission changed. I realised I was a bitter girl and I needed to allow God to teach me.

Two years later, I reminded God, now is the time, remember our agreement. By this time, I had given Him a list of what I desired in a man. Ladies we all know our fantasy man, taller than me, handsome, financially stable etc. However one that always stood out for me was I needed a man who was my friend prior to dating, one who would find favour with my family and one who understood what grace is (one who would see the skeletons in my closet without judging me).The year of our Lord 2013 was the year, I kept declaring to my friends am dating this year, the year came and went but nothing, oh how I felt conned.

As the year came to an end, God woke me up one early morning and I heard the song in my spirit ”Covenant keeping God”, He later made me go outside and showed me the sky, a broad rainbow was there and He said ’Just as I have kept my covenant from Noah’s time, I will keep my covenant”. I was delighted to see He still remembered but I was growing impatient. The next year I had a girlfriend who was getting married and my heart was all into the wedding. In the process my girlfriend points out that do you know so and so told me he likes you .This particular guy, I had met him in January 2013 through a mutual friend in church and we grew to be friends. He however was not on my list of potentials since he was laid back, calm but very friendly, he was going through a rough patch in life having lost a job and looking for one. Meanwhile a family friend started pursuing me, and I liked it. He drove a four wheel car, had a career and a number of businesses, was a church elder in their church and was a good man by my estimations.

A few months down the line of taking coffees and lunches with my family friend, whom by now my family had started suspecting something was in the offing, I felt I needed to check with God before it became serious and surprise, surprise, He answered me in a vivid dream where I saw the first guy stuck in a pool and I pulled his shoe out then drew his attention to an extra pair of shoes on his back. That set me aback but knowing God and the way He works, I started praying for my heart and three months later the guy asked for my hand in courtship and I was ready for him as we had our agreements with God. A year and a half later, we got married.

In retrospect, am grateful to God for bringing him my way for he has loved me in difficult times, understood me and calmed me down when my explosive nature has come into play. December 5^th this year will be 3 years of marriage and I can look back and see that it was important for God to prepare and teach me on how to be a wife and a helper. God has blessed our marriage with a baby girl and this has heightened our love and dependence on God. I thank God I have a man who prays for me, encourages me in the Lord and one who provides leadership in our home in a godly way.

Can I trust God even when He seems to be taking me the longer route?

Yes, I can because His plans for my life are good and perfect.”

 

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I pray that her story inspires you to keep pushing on, holding on, keep praying and walking the faith; to know that God never forgets you and in His own timing, He makes everything BEAUTIFUL!!!

Lots of love,