S.O.F.T.: Standing on Faith Together

By Kathleen Zacca

When the storms come, what do you do? When the pain is unbearable, how do you survive? The answer is faithfaith that God loves you and cares for you, no matter what the outcome is. You must have faith that God will do what is best for you and the ones you are praying for. Faith even when you see the opposite of what you are praying for. Faith that God has a plan for you and the ones you love.

If you are deep down in a nasty pit and there seems to be no way out, it is time for you to take a stand and live the life God has designed specifically for you. The battle will be fierce, but you can do it! How do you get out of that pit? Faithunquestioning belief in God. Faith is the key that unlocks all the answers to your questions.

God loves you like no other, and he wants you to understand what your faith means to him. This world and your heavenly Father need you and your faith. It is time for you to get up and fight. It is time for you to take a stand and defeat the enemy. We must unite and stand on faith together to experience victory after victory for his glory! If you are ready, I only have one question:

Will you stand with me?

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Aug 21, 2017
• ISBN: 9781512785890

Kathleen Zacca

Kathleen Zacca lives in Texas with her husband, Shaun, and their four children: Daniel, Katrina, Kaitlyn, and Chance. Kathleen has been a Christian for seventeen years. Her oldest daughter and two sons are currently in college, and her youngest daughter is a senior in high school. She has three grandchildren: MacKenzie, Logan, and Maci. She also has a golden retriever and a Great Pyrenees.

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Copyright © 2017 Kathleen Zacca.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-8588-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-8590-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-8589-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017907204

WestBow Press rev. date: 08/18/2017

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction: The Deep, Dark Pit

Chapter 1—Faith

Chapter 2—Faith: Where Will It Take You?

Chapter 3—Faith Is a Journey

Chapter 4—God’s Expectations on Faith

Chapter 5—Putting Your Faith in God

Chapter 6—Faith: Man vs. God

Chapter 7—Faith: The Hard Stuff

Chapter 8—Why Is Faith Such a Struggle?

Chapter 9—Are You Going Crazy?

Chapter 10—A World without Faith

Chapter 11—Faith: The Process of Transformation

Chapter 12—SOFT: Standing on Faith Together

Conclusion: Blue Skies

A Final Prayer of Thanks

Inspirational Verses

References and Resources

Endnotes

About the Author

To my mom

I am who I am today because of all the beautiful things you taught me.

I love you. I miss you.

To my step-dad, Jim

Thank you for taking care of my mom. The past couple of years have been really hard for you, and I want you to know you did a great job, and I love you for all that you did for her. I’ll always be grateful because you took care of her when she needed you the most. And most importantly, thank you for bringing me to that little church seventeen years ago. Because of you, I have a relationship with God, and I will spend eternity in heaven. You made a significant difference in my life. Thank you.

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.

—Psalm 46:1

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

To my husband, Shaun:

You are my rock, and I am so thankful for everything you do. Thank you for working so hard to take care of our family. You’re doing an amazing job, and you deserve great rewards. I truly don’t know what I would do without you. I love spending time with you because you always know how to make me laugh. Thank you for encouraging and supporting me in writing this book. I wouldn’t have been able to accomplish it without the unbelievable confidence you have in me, even though we were struggling so much. You believe in me, and that means more to me than you’ll ever know. You are an amazing man, and I am proud to be your wife. The past seven years or so have been the toughest we have been through, but we made it, and I am so glad we did it together.

Are you ready for this next chapter in our lives? It’s time for us to finally move on from that pit we have been in, and I cannot wait to see what God has in store for both of us. Thank you for being the man you are and for helping me be the woman I am today. I have faith that one day very soon you will know God and will finally understand. You are my everything, and I am truly blessed to have you by my side. You will always have my heart.

I love you so much.

To my firstborn son, Daniel:

The last few years have been tough for you, but I have watched you grow up in a lot of ways. I know you’re happier than you have been in a long time, and that fact brings me so much joy. You served in the Marine Corps, and now you’re in college. I am proud of you for both of those choices, and I cannot wait to see what you will accomplish. Don’t let anything hold you back because I know God has something big planned for you and your wife, Breanna. Pursue what God has for you; bless others with your amazing personality. You really do have a gift for making people laugh. Look to your future, Son. You have been through a lot, but God doesn’t want you to live in your past. There is nothing like the peace of God; his love and peace will give you all that your heart desires.

Raise your children with love, patience, and kindness; and watch them turn into beautiful adults you will be so proud of. All three of my grandchildren are so unique and wonderful in their own way—because of you and Breanna. I want you to know I pray for you every single day, and I believe you will accomplish all your dreams. You may be six foot, four inches tall, but to me you will always be my little boy. Continue to have faith, and God will bless you in ways you won’t be able to comprehend.

I love you, Son.

To my daughter-in-law, Breanna:

I still remember the moment Danny told me about you. I hadn’t even met you, but I knew you were something special. As I began to pray for you, God confirmed that you were the one my son would marry. You are the one I had been praying for when my son was just a child, and you quickly became like a daughter to me. I’ll never forget it. We had so much fun together while Danny was thousands of miles away, serving our country. I remember all the tears we cried together because we were so worried about him—moments I will cherish forever. We were blessed because he came home to us safely. I still remember that young girl who had such a heart for God; I remember seeing the joy on your face every time Danny came home. It made my heart so happy. And here we are, many years later, and a lot has happened since then.

I want to thank you for being strong and faithful. I also want to thank you for being a wonderful mother to my beautiful grandchildren: MacKenzie, Logan, and Maci. And most of all, I want to thank you for loving my son. Keep praying and stay faithful, and God will use all you and Danny have been through for his glory. I believe God is going to use you to help other women who are struggling with men suffering from PTSD. Beauty from ashes—that is your story. God is good, and God is faithful. Always remember how strong you are.

I love you.

To my daughter Katrina:

Thank you for lifting me up on my toughest days. You were there for me when no one else understood, and I will be forever grateful because of your steadfast encouragement. Your beauty comes from deep within, and I am so proud of the young woman you have become. Can you believe we made it? All those times we prayed together, all the tears we shed—they meant something to God—because we had faith, and we didn’t give up. You are so very special, so beautiful on the inside and out—your dad and I are very blessed to have you. You have such a beautiful smile, and it lights up the room when you walk in. And your laughter is beautiful and contagious.

Continue to have faith, Katrina, because God is doing something amazing in you. I truly believe you will be a successful writer, and I can’t wait to see all you will accomplish. Thank you—from the bottom of my heart, thank you—for encouraging me on my worst days and for hugging me when I needed the support the most. You are such a blessing to me, and my heart overflows with love for you. When I look at you, I will always see a pillar, a tower of strength. God knew what he was doing when he created you. You’re amazing. I couldn’t survive without you.

I love you more than you will ever know.

To my daughter Kaitlyn:

My youngest child, I love you for so many different reasons. You have a strength about you that simply amazes me. When we were going through our toughest times, your faith was so strong, and you had this quiet encouragement that blew me away. I would look at you, and without any words spoken, I knew you were telling me it would be okay; we would be okay. The peace you have that things will work out is beautiful. Thank you for all the hugs and all the encouraging words. God sees your faith, and he knows your heart.

I’m so proud of you for taking a stand and having faith as you continue to pray. He will answer the prayers you have been praying so desperately for because of your faith. Don’t ever settle for anything, because you deserve the very best. You have such an amazing inner beauty, and it shows in everything you do. It is hard for me to believe you’re a senior this year—my little girl all grown up. You have this wonderful gift of making everyone around you smile. Your dad and I love the way you make us laugh. Keep doing what you’re doing, sweetheart, because the world needs more laughter, love, faith, and peace. You have all those things, and I believe you are going to change the world—one person at a time.

I love you more than words can say.

To my son Chance:

I had a connection with you the very moment I met you, and the love God gave me for you was astounding. Our family needed you just as much as you needed us. Thank you for helping me to see so many things differently. Your encouragement helped me to see past all the doubts I had in myself, and there were many. I also want to thank you for encouraging me to be a writer. You believed in me from the very beginning, and I appreciate your faith more than words can say. The success of this book is so important to me because I want you to watch all of it unfold just the way God intended—it definitely is different from the way I planned it, but God knows what is best for each of us. I wrote this book to change the lives of people who are in a desperate situation.

I want to encourage them to have faith and to take a stand until the storm has passed—just like we did. I know you hoped that once you came to live with us, there would be no more suffering, no more insecurity—but there is a reason for all of it because God has something big for you. He still loves you, and he hasn’t given up on you. God brought you into our family to help you become the man you were meant to be, and Dad and I don’t take that lightly. We will never stop loving you; you are so very special—never forget that. I believe you will accomplish greater things than you have ever imagined. You won’t settle for anything less, because that is who you are. I am so proud to be part of your life, and I’m proud of the man you’re becoming. I have faith that you will know God again, and this time it will be different.

I love you so much.

INTRODUCTION

THE DEEP, DARK PIT

A T SOME POINT, we all struggle with faith. I have never met a person who said, God has answered every single prayer just the way I asked, and he has healed every sick person I have ever met. He also comes down from heaven and eats breakfast with me every morning, and we have a nice, long chat face-to-face. It’s hard having faith in someone or something we cannot see and even harder that our loving God doesn’t answer some of our most desperate prayers the way we want. This doesn’t mean God doesn’t exist or doesn’t love you. But how do we have faith? More precisely, what do we have to do to live in faith? How do we have real faith in God when there is so much pain and suffering in this world?

We hear stories all the time that put our faith to the test. Someone was shot in a robbery, or a friend is in the hospital in critical condition because he or she was involved in a serious car accident. You think, I know my friend is a good person, Lord. What did he or she do to deserve this? It’s even worse if the trial involves someone close to you—your husband or wife, son or daughter, mother or father, brother or sister. It takes only one incident to change someone’s entire life. And we question God: Why? Why is this happening to me, Lord?

I know I’m not alone in this. There are so many people suffering every single day, and they cry out to God, begging for his help. More and more people turn away from God because they don’t want to believe and have faith in a God they cannot see or because they feel he doesn’t care about them. It has to stop. Something needs to change.

God does care, and he wants us to wake up and understand that our faith matters to him in every possible way we could imagine. We matter to God.

Maybe some of you are reading this right now and thinking, No, I don’t really matter to God, or he would help me.

Let me say it again. You matter to God. You’re important to your Creator. He loves you just as you are, right where you are, no matter how deep a hole you’re in. You matter to God.

I understand how