Do you ever wonder if God is there for you?

Author Beth Guckenberger says we often get so caught up in our circumstances that we forget who is really in control. She says we also forget that God is waiting for us to invite Him into our lives every day.

“There’s this passage in Exodus 25 where God is talking to Moses about building the Tabernacle. He basically says, ‘if you make room for me, I’ll come and fill it.”

Beth believes that the offer that God gave to Moses still stands for us today.

“If we make room for Him in our hearts, He’ll come and fill it. Saying amen for me is like a word that creates room for Him. All of the sudden, whatever is working me up, I just lay it down for a minute. I’m just going to surrender. What follows is a lot more of me surrendering myself to Him instead of me trying to manipulate His hand.”

How can we surrender ourselves when there are so many circumstances in life that are up in the air?

Beth says it’s crucial to remember that God already knows the end from the beginning.

“We are all in the middle of a bunch of stories and we don’t know how they are going to end. I have friends who have hard things going on in their lives, aging parents, children you can’t control the way you want to, financial issues, our bodies don’t work the way we want them to. We are not in control.”

This is where it’s important to remember where our spiritual confidence comes from.

“Realizing with a spiritual confidence – not a self-confidence – that I submit my life and all of my ways to a God who not only is in control of those story lines, but is working them all out for my good. It’s like the deepest breath I could possibly take. There’s a tremendous sense of freedom that I am to wake up every day to be faithful and available to Him and every outcome and every story line I can think of will be okay because His hand is on it.”


Beth Guckenberger is a gifted writer. She has written seven books all of which are based in storytelling and draw from her vast field experience as a missionary, Bible teacher, and parent. She has a unique way of unpacking the deep truths of Scripture in a way that helps you truly connect with what God is saying. She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio with her family and husband, Todd, where they serve as co-executive directors of Back2Back Ministries—an international orphan care ministry serving abandoned, orphaned and impoverished children in Mexico, Nigeria, India and Haiti.

Key Scripture: Joshua 1:8

Featured Songs: He is With Us – Love & the Outcome; The King of the World – Natalie Grant; The War is Over – Bethel Music

Start with amen