Who is God? Blog Post By Whitney Haahr
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Have you ever been in a season of your life where you feel the Lord calling you somewhere or to do something?
Somewhere that you’ve always wanted to go or something you’ve always wanted to do, but never thought it would actually happen or turn out in a good way?
If you would have asked me last August if I thought I’d be where I’m at now, I definitely wouldn’t have believed you.
To “set the stage” for you, 2022 was a year of constant transition. I moved home from college, quit my job to pursue full-time entrepreneurship, married my husband and moved into our first apartment, found out we were expecting our first baby and decided our apartment wasn’t going to be a good fit with a baby, so we moved again, and the year ended with graduating with my Bachelor’s degree.
To say the least, I had a very busy year and I let the busyness become my excuse for the most important thing… my faith. Day by day I kept putting more things before God. They say the hardest day to pray is the day after you didn’t pray. After I decided that I didn’t want that to be my reality, I chose to dive deeper into who God is.
Who is God?
1) God is love. In 1 John 4:8, “Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.” For most of my life, I never allowed myself to experience the depth of my Father’s love for me. I’ve experienced love in many different relationships. My relationship with my parents, I know they would do anything and everything for me. My relationship with my sisters, I know I could lean on them for advice with anything. My relationship with friends, I know that I can turn to them when I need to talk to someone. There are many other “relationships” that I have but the last one I want to share is the relationship with my husband. I know that he will sacrifice anything for me, he serves & protects me everyday, and he loves me beyond anything else on this earth. As I reflect on my husband and I’s relationship and the love that we share, I can’t help but bring in the Father’s love for me. If God loves more than any person on this earth, just how much does He love me?
2) God is abundant. In John 10:10, “I came so they might have life and have it more abundantly.” There is not a single place that the Lord calls us to that He doesn’t provide in abundance. Going full-time as an entrepreneur post-college has brought its own anxieties and fears which have led me to believe lies such as “I’ll never be able to grow a successful business” or “What if my business fails?” I catch myself in disbelief in our Lord more frequently than I’d like to admit.
A song that has allowed me to open my eyes to the abundance of our God is “Bigger Than I Thought” by Sean Curran. The chorus of the song is “So I throw all my cares before you, my doubts and fears don’t scare you, You’re bigger than I thought You were.” In the moment of listening to this song for the first time, I could feel the Lord lift my heart and remind me of who He is. He is a God of abundance. I can look around at my life and see so much proof of that–abundance of love through my husband, family, and friends; abundance of support through my podcast and shop, and He continues to provide me with an abundance of hope in Him.
3) God is YOUR Father. How often do you find yourself needing to “do things” for the Lord or trying to earn His love? Envision this scenario with me. Picture a father with his young daughter. Does he expect her to clean up her toys, go to bed on time, etc. in order to earn his love? Absolutely not. He loves her because he is her father. This scenario is the same for you with God, your heavenly Father. No matter your age, no matter what you’ve been to, the sins you struggle with, the Lord deeply desires to pursue your heart. There is nothing He wants more than for you to simply be with Him.
All three of these truths lead up to a truth that I’ve been experiencing every single day…
God is Faithful. 1 Corinthians 10:13, "God is faithful and will not let you be tried beyond your strength; but with the trial he will also provide a way out, so that you may be able to bear it." How often do you find yourself saying “Oh I’m never lucky enough to receive this…” or “God doesn’t love me enough to give me this…” We do that way too often. I want to share a personal experience on how God has taught me and shown me His faithfulness.
At the beginning of December 2022, I knew graduation was approaching and every graduate’s dreaded question, “What’s next?” kept getting asked. Fellow parishioners, family, and friends kept asking, not out of being nosy, out of curiosity. I wasn’t angry by any means, I just responded with “I’m going to watch my nephew a few days a week and do some design work on the other days.”
But deep down, I knew that the Lord was calling me to do more, but I was too afraid to share. I was too afraid of what other people would think of me if I said, “The Lord is calling my heart to serve through the Abundantly Yours ministry I’ve started.” And although the full-time income isn’t there yet, that’s where I’ve experienced the most peace.
How did I experience the Lord’s faithfulness through this? I encountered and met the Lord so deeply through the work I get to do with Abundantly Yours Ministry. He has been so faithful to me through my work. My podcast and shop are growing more than I ever thought, and most importantly He has shown me that is taking care of the desires in my heart.
So I want to jump back to these statements: “God doesn’t love me enough to give me this…” or “I’m not lucky enough to receive this…” These are lies from the enemy and will never be true. I want you to lay the desires you have down at the foot of the cross and entrust them in His hands.
I try to pray with this crucifix as often as I can, and when I do, I pray out loud and say “Lord, I lay all my desires down at your feet. Help me to trust in the plan and timing you have for these desires.”
He sees your desires and He knows them. He wants to fulfill them how your heart needs and when you are truly ready to receive them.
If you are in a season of being called deeper, into something that seems uncomfortable, yet peace still remains, know that God will remain faithful to your “yes” to Him. Even if you have no idea how it will work out remember these truths:
God is love. God is abundant. God is your Father. God is Faithful.
Blog Post By Whitney Haahr, Abundantly Yours abundantlyyours.org
Whitney is the creator of the Rosary that accompanies our Rosary Bowl.
