God is our shelter; He is our refuge and our sanctuary. He is with you, always. But it is easy to forget His presence when we are in the depths of darkness. When my mom died, I struggled to remember that I was not alone. I forgot that although I was hurting, God was with me. Because I forgot to seek His shelter and comfort, I found it easy to succumb to the sadness that filled me. When you lose someone so young who plays such a critical part in the development of who you become, you begin to lose focus on who you are.
I struggled throughout my early teenage years to identify myself. It was hard to not identify as a motherless daughter, as someone who is lost and confused. I found solace in identifying with loss, because it wrecked me. It took several years of struggling with my identity to realize that my identity was built in God. It was at that point in life, my sophomore year of college, when I found the path to Him again—when I turned to Him for comfort and strength. It was God that carried me out of my depths of sadness—He reminded me that He is always here for me, no matter what I was going through.
Below are 13 verses that show me that He is with me, and He hears me, always. I turned to these verses a lot when I was first repairing my relationship, and I still cling to them when I struggle with my identity.
- John 5:14 “this is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.”
- 1 Chronicles 16:11 “look to the Lord and His strength, seek His face always.”
- Jeremiah 29:12 “then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will Listened to you.”
- Mark 11:24 “therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
- Psalm 102:17 “He will respond to the prayer of the destitute; He will not despise their plea.”
- John 5:15 “and if we know that He hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of Him.”
- Psalm 145:18 “the Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth.”
- Luke 18:1 “then Jesus told His disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.”
- 1 John 5:14-15 “and this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of Him.”
- Matthew 21:22 “and whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”
- 1 Peter 5:7 “cast all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you.”
- John 14:14 “if you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”
- Matthew 7:7 “ask and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
God commands us to seek Him in our weakest moments; to pray and cry out for Him; to ask Him to hear us. Throughout the Bible, God reminds us to seek Him; to ask for Him to help us, to carry us. So when you feel alone, or unheard, seek Scripture and find solace in the reminder that He wants us to seek Him throughout it all. Just as in the poem, He tells us, “My precious child, I love you and will never leave you; Never, ever, during your trials and testings. When you saw only one set of footprints, It was then that I carried you.” Remember, God will carry you when you need it most.
