Learn how to trust in the Lord with all your heart, as Proverbs 3:5 instructs Christian women. Discover how to lean on Him, not your own understanding. Hear my testimony.

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”- Proverbs 3:5

In this Biblical devotional for Christian women today, we will ponder this scripture, and at the end of my message, I will pray for you to lift you up to God and ask for His peace, protection, provision, and promotion in your life.

My name is Anna Szabo, and you are listening to The Anna Szabo Show, a podcast for Christian women to help you create a joyful life by embracing God’s word. I am the founder of OnlineDiscipleshipForWomen.com where you can find more than 1,000,000 words of helpful content I created to encourage and empower you.  

We live through the era of political violence, health crisis due to a global pandemic, the economic crisis caused by the pandemic, long-lasting unemployment caused by the economic crisis, and the list of our troubles goes on and on. There’s so much confusion in our minds and so much doubt in our hearts… 

I know. This season is difficult for me personally, too. In the natural, it looks like God perhaps abandoned his people completely. Maybe God betrayed us? Or does He not even care? Is God good?

I wrote a detailed blog post about it on my ministry website and also did a podcast about it. So if you Google “Is God Good? Anna Szabo” you will quickly find it. I’ll also link to it in the notes below. 

Trusting God is hard. But that’s why we needed faith, which hope in the things unseen. To help myself trust in the Lord with all my heart, I typically look back at my experience with God, I examine if God stayed true to His promises, and I see through introspection that God is faithful.

I also know that when we are facing hardships, we can’t see the big picture. But I assure you: God is not on vacation right now, He is present in your life right now, He cares about you right now, and His plan for you is good.

Now, I don’t your exact situation but I do know that God led you to my Christian podcast for women for a reason. So, let me share with you some of my personal situations, in which I faced trials and tribulations and doubted God, His goodness, and His presence in my life, as well as the goodness of His plan for me. 

I first was introduced to pornography and molested by my mother when I was five. That caused many issues, including a decades-lasting sex addiction. What good was in my troubles? Well… Let me tell you. I always say very honestly: I came to Christ through sex. In April of 2014, I fell on my knees and asked Jesus to take over my heart and mind and lead my life. In October of 2014, I got baptized in front of 3000 people. For years now, I’ve lived a single and celibate life with God and it has improved my mental health, physical well-being, and financial stability. I love my life and am able to help other Christian women through my ministry by sharing my testimony and spiritual poems.

Let me share one poem that shows how God gave me beauty for my ashes, as He promised He would. 

This is poem number 115  at AnnaSzabo.com/poems 

“I Am Enough!”

As a little girl, I was brainwashed to believe 

That I needed a man in order for me to live.

That I was supposed to seek my better half,

That a husband and babies I had to have.

My true passions were formal education and self-learning.

I dreamed that one day my own money I’d be independently earning. 

I wanted to pursue knowledge and seek my own path. 

I was inspired by poetry and genuinely obsessed with math.

I was persuaded that this was all considered insane,

That womanhood was about using the body, not the brain. 

I was taught by my mom to think less and sleep around more.

I graduated from four universities but was as confused as ever before. 

I married and divorced three times only to realize 

That my worthiness doesn’t come from babies or guys.

I’m not a half of anything. I am completely whole.

The purpose of my life isn’t to get a man. It’s to have a peaceful soul. 

Today, I enjoy a simple, single, and celibate life.

I am not anyone’s girlfriend, mother, or wife.

I am an author, poet, blogger, artist, and speaker. 

Being single and celibate, I am stronger, not weaker.

I’m not confused about who I am or why I’m here anymore.

I’m living out my passion. Life now is a blessing, not a chore.

I am a two-times suicide survivor, and I’m telling you this:

You’re not a half! You are enough! You can be single and have a bliss! 

Stop searching outside of yourself for happiness and contentment!

Stop listening to others’ opinions while suffocating from resentment!

Seek your own path! Everyone’s journey is unique.

There’s a clear path for you. To find it, you must seek. 

8/26/2020 © Anna Szabo, JD, MBA

I became very passionate about Jesus and the Gospel. I prayed that God would give me a ministry and allow me to encourage and empower Christian women. Instead, God gave me an abusive husband who manipulated me and threatened me with violence and didn’t at mortgage and left me with no money for food and also cheated on me. Prior to marrying Michel, I was Anna Stevens. After I married him and became Szabo, the abuse began. I drew my identity from Michel’s last name and my status as his wife. He abused and tormented me. That was when God brought me back to my knees and revealed to me that my identity ones from Christ, not Michel. That’s why I kept Michel’s last name after our divorce – to remind myself that last names don’t define my identity. Jesus does. I wrote an ebook about Christian identity while going through divorce with Michel four months after out wedding. The ebook is called “52 Things God Says About You.” I’m giving it to Christian women for free. Link is in the notes. Make sure you download your free copy while it’s available. Guess what else God gave me one He grounded me in my identity in Christ? God gave me ministry. Here’s a poem I wrote which reveals how God answers our prayers with blessings that at first look like curses.

This is poem number 103 at AnnaSzabo.com/poems 

 “Answered Prayers”

God, I asked you for a women’s ministry, and you gave me an abusive spouse.

I prayed for less anger and more patience,  and you gave me a flooded house. 

I was so confused at first but having reviewed my life, I understood you.

I examined my prayers and your answers and finally I got the divine clue.

I wanted a women’s ministry, so you had to equip me with fortitude and endurance.

You gave me a cruel husband to reveal your wisdom and bless me with reassurance…

That my life is guided by you and that your plan for me is truly good.

Facing my flooded home without any anger today, your ways I understood. 

God, thank you for answering my prayers in your unconventional and divine way.

I surrender to you, I follow you, your will and guidance with gratitude I obey. 

4/13/2020 © Anna Szabo, JD, MBA

I hope you can see that through introspection, we can witness God’s faithfulness and goodness SO that we can more easily trust in the Lord and lean not on our own understanding during hardships. 

I will give you one final example from my life, which is extremely powerful and shocks even me today as I look back and journal and remember my difficult journey, full of adversity and afflictions. 

In 2008, I came to America to live my happily-ever-after with a man whom I net online and dated for a few years. In America, I was labeled a mail-ordered bride. As soon as I stepped on this land, my Prince Charming turned into the Prince of Darkness. I was enslaved, beaten to the point of bleeding, and on April 9th of 2009, after months of enduring domestic abuse, the Dunwoody Police Department conducted a rescue operation and took me away to a shelter for battered women. 

I didn’t speak English in 2009. Mark, my wanna be Prince Charming, never filed for proper immigration documents for me, so I had no SSN, no driver’s license, no work permit, no money, no bank out, no friends since he held me hostage from the moment I arrived to the US, and now I was homeless in a foreign country without documents and without speaking the language… 

How do you think I felt? 

Would you like trust God in such a desperate situation? 

That was April 9th of 2009. I taught myself English within 18 months, listening to Frank Sinatra. I got three pro-Bono attorneys: one for divorce, one for restraining order, and one for VAWA, the Violence Against Women Act for my proper immigration documents. I 2010, I already was working a job at the Magistrate Court if Fulton Country, earning my own salary. I had my own car, which I personally paid off. 

On October 3rd of 2010, I already had my own place and read living by myself in Buckhead West in Atlanta. On January 24th of 2011, I passed an Academic English Test and was accepted to Georgia State University. In May of 2013, I graduated with an MBA and a 3.74 GPA and published a book about my journey called “Turn Your Dreams and Wants into Achievable SMART Goals!” In 2014, I was baptized. In 2017, God gave me a ministry for Christian women and a burning desire to share His miracles to encourage and empower others. 

Today is January 16th, 2021. I’m turning 38 in 2 days. From where I am today, can I see how good God is? Yes. But on April 9th of 2009, as I was rescued by the police, shaken by the violence against me, weeping and feeling confused, was it easy to lean on the Lord? No.

Yet, God us faithful and trustworthy.

Remembering how faithful God has been in my life, witnessing it through introspection, I have faith in God today that only multiplies and compounds through the current trials and tribulations I am facing right now. I trust in the Lord and not lean on my own understanding .

Whatever you’re going through right now, no matter how scary or impossible your circumstances are, trust in the Lord with all your heart. God’s plan is good! You are hearing this testimony in English from a woman who was a mail-ordered bride, enslaved, abused, and even homeless in America without speaking English, just a few years ago. I promise you: God has a plan, His plan is good, and YOU are a part of God’s good plan. 

I have created an entire playlist of videos I personally produced to encourage and empower you called “How To Trust God.” I’m going to link to it in the notes, make sure you check it out and subscribe to my Christian YouTube channel. 

Before I pray for you, I want to invite you 

to support my ministry by making a donation at onlinediscipleshipforwomen.com

Also, I created a beautiful collection of Biblical apparel for Christian women to encourage and empower you. I’ll share the link to my collection in the notes below. 

Let me pray for you.

Father God, I thank you for leading the woman listening right now to my Christian podcast and this special, brutally honest  Biblical devotional for women with my powerful testimony. May it uplift and encourage the woman who’s listening right now. You are a good God. You have a plan. We don’t always understand but that’s why faith us hope in things unseen. 

Father God, I trust in the Lord with all my heart and I’m praying for the woman listening to this Christian podcast right now. I’m lifting her up to you asking that you strengthen, multiply, and compound her faith in this difficult season of life, that you reveal yourself to her right now through this message and my prayer, that you comfort her through my Christian ministry with the same comfort I myself received from you, God, and that you bless the woman who is listening right now with your divine protection, favor, provision, clarity, and promotion. I pray these sacred things in the marvelous name of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior.

Amen. 

Read my best devotionals for women:

• Pray without Ceasing – 1 Thessalonians 5:17
• Let Your Eyes Look Straight Ahead – Proverbs 4:25
• Take Every Thought Captive – 2 Corinthians 10:5
• Be Strong and Courageous – Deuteronomy‬ ‭31:6‬
• Honor Your Father and Mother – Exodus 20:12