Victory when We Should have been Defeated

     Sometimes its not until you look back that realize God has been leading you the whole time. It's not until you look back that you can see how it worked out just right, and for the best. You look back and you see those moments that you felt like giving up, but didn't. You see those moments where things were at the worst, then someone or something showed up to encourage you. God is there in these moments as the small voice of encouragement, or the victory over what seemed like certain defeat. He is in those moments of triumph when you were on the brink of giving up, but the miraculous happened.
      Recently, my husband and I have been talking about the first couple years of our marriage. We really have only been married for a few years, but in our first year of marriage all hell broke loose. It seemed like our whole world was falling a part. And the more we tried to cling to God, the more difficult things became. We both struggled differently at this time with anxiety, depression, and emotional hurt from the things that were going on. It felt like everyday there was some new struggle, real or imagined, that was there and being used to pull us a part, to distract us from one another, to distract us from God and His promises so that we would be destroyed. But God kept us safe just as His word promises, and led us out from under the burden of these destructive forces and now I can see we are on our way back to fullness.
      I felt at times while we struggled that God had abandoned us, but I kept praying anyway, kept believing, and kept speaking faith. Sometimes, I thought things were getting better, only to have them fall apart again, and be crushed by the disappointment. But I realize now,  those small moments that built my hopes up again, that reinforced my belief that God would see us through were there for that very reason, even if I didn't see it that way at the time. I saw those moments of hope as the end of the struggle, but each time was disappointed, and at times despite my positive words and my prayers wondered if the struggle would ever end. But it was those moments where I saw hope that kept me moving forward, even through the disappointments I faced after. I see now how these certain situations that seemed like defeat, were really stepping stones in the path to the present.
        I know with certainty now that this struggle is over, but I also know there will be other struggles in the future. I know that we are already moving forward with the next chapter of our life, and I know it was our Lord who saw us through. I know it was His guidance that moved us along, and it was His protection that kept us out of the enemies hands. I have learned these last couple of years the truth of the words that the Lord will provide, because He does, continually and in abundance. I have learned that there can be no defeat where Jesus is involved, and I have learned the more I desire to be obedient and obey, the more fulfilled my life is. In the face of what should have been defeat, when we watched many other newly weds struggle and break up, we were able to overcome our struggles in the Lord, and learned that He is a God who provides in the face of adversity.

Psalm 65:9
 9 You visit the earth and cause it to overflow; You greatly enrich it; The stream of God is full of water; You prepare their grain, for thus You prepare the earth.