Andrew Golden's Blog

     Have you ever been riding high on your faith so high that you believe nothing can bring you down? You feel that your faith is so strong that no matter what hits, you will be able to fight through it. Then, out of nowhere, something happens that takes you off your feet. Something that brings you so low that you feel like God is no longer protecting you.
     Well, that is what happened to me. I was so strong in my faith that I felt I could take on anything. I felt that nothing could hinder my walk with God. I was traveling to preach at different churches and would tell of what God gad brought my family and me through. I would share how we went through so many miscarriages, then God gave us a child, how God had blessed us through all of my oldest surgeries, and then gave us a second child.
     I would stand and tell how God has a plan in our lives. We just have to learn to hold on for the ride. I preached about having faith. I preached and believed that God had already sent me through the Storm, and I was finally sailing on calm waters.
     That was when we decided it was time for us to try for a third child. When we found out we were pregnant, I thanked God for another child and began planning for that baby to arrive. Then we discovered that the baby would not be born and we experienced another miscarriage, and at that moment, I took a hit that knocked me off of my high.
I hit the ground, and I didn’t know how to get back up. Before I knew it, I was traveling anymore. It got easier to stay at my home church. Then, it got easier to set down and not preach even there. Even after God blessed us with another son, I struggled. I felt defeated. I felt like I had failed.
     Then things got worse when my new baby was found to have a heart condition like his olfer brother and had to have heart surgery at five months old. I found myself asking God if I was being punished. I let that little voice in my head tell me it was my fault. That I had failed and God was now punishing my family and me.
     Then, a week before my baby was scheduled for surgery, my wife discovered we were expecting another child. I was breathless. We had decided that we didn’t want to try for more kids. We were scared of having the chance of having to put another child through heart surgery. After all, we were about to experience it with a second child.
      Then my pastor, who is also my father, said it best, “God gives us children because he trusts us and wants to bless us.”
      He then told me to read Psalms 127:4-5.
4 As arrows are in the hands of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. 5 Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.
     I asked him, then why was God giving me so many children that as a father, I had to watch them be in pain. Why me, why my children, and why my family had to endure so much hardship.
     His response was to read Romans 8:28.
28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
     I began praying for guidance again. I wanted to understand God’s plan again. I wanted to feel his love around me. I wanted to get back to where I was at, but I was still struggling with why God was letting my family go through so much hardship.
    That was until one day while a work a friend of mine, who I had prayed night and day for him to find his path with God. Well, he found his path right after I began to slip up and begin to feel defeated. One day, he called me and said something I needed to hear.
    He said that God knew that my sons would be born but he also knew he needed parents who could pray for the., raise the right, and be there through all of their surges and trust God to heal them. He knew my children needed me just as much as I needed them and that God had given them to me because he trusted me with them.
    At that moment, I realized I had let things that I had been through before hit my faith because I thought I would never have to experience them again. I felt sorry for myself when I should have trusted in God’s plan. When I played football in high school and someone got hit so hard they couldn’t get up, we would say they got rocked, and that is what happened to me, I got Rocked.
     Out of everything I am trying to say is, you will take hits in your faith. You will feel like you are being punished and that you are failing everyone around you. You will think that nothing is going right. You will start to feel sorry for yourself.
     You have to get back up. You have to remember that God didn’t leave you. He isn’t punishing you. You are just going through another trail. If you get hit and fall down. Get back up. Just don’t take as long as I have taken. Get up and get back to work for God.

Proverbs 24:16
16 For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.

Psalms 77:11-13

11 I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old.

12 I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings.

13 Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God?

This morning I got woke up with my 6 year old son climbing in my bed. It was an hour and half before I had to get up for work, but I found myself not able to go back to sleep. Instead, I begin to remember a time when I would have given anything to have a child in my home. I remembered back before he was born, and my wife and I were told we would never have children. When we would wake up to a quiet house that reminded us of what we couldn’t have. I about started crying because last summer we experienced another miscarriage and even though God had already blessed us with two children and I knew that God had his reasons for everything that we go through, I found myself dwelling on the pain that it brought. Even though we are pregnant again, I still could not shake the pain. I struggled with getting back on my feet. Then this morning I gave the pain and all the heart ache to God. I begin to look at my 2 boys and begin to thank God for them. I looked at my pregnant wife and begin to thank God for her. I stopped looked at the moment of pain and started looking back at the wonderful miracles God had already done in my life. If you are struggling because you can’t look past in your life, I urge you to try to look at the wonders God has already done. You can say that there is no beauty, but I promise you that if you stop looking for the negative in life and instead look to all the beauty God has given us your mind will change. God has given us the beautiful sound of a child’s laughter, the testimony of the recovered addict, the testimony of the sinner saved by grace, and so much more that I could spend all day explaining it to you. Remember that even though times get tough and pain and hurt is inevitable, God will use it to build your testimony to help the next ones about to go through the same struggle. So, look to the wonders of God and don’t fall into the slump that I did.

Proverbs 19:15

Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep; and an idle soul shall suffer hunger



I noticed the other day that I hadn’t posted in a while. I used the excuse I was to busy, I was to tired, or I just put it off for the next day. I became idle. Before I realized my whole walk with God started slowing down. I stopped studying the Bible as much and would only read and study when someone would ask me a question. It was like my growth had stopped and now that I realize it I find that I hunger for the place I was at before. Sometimes our mistakes can teach us a lesson that we need. My laziness has to end. Being idle when there is work for the kingdom to be done is wrong. If you have fallen into this idle sleep, wake up and get back to your calling. God has a job for each of us and it’s time to get to work.

Matthew 18:6

But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea

Proverbs 22:6

 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Children are innocent. They do not understand sin like an adult should. They only understand what they are taught. So why are Christians setting back and letting the world teach them sin is okay. You hear Christians say that they just don’t want to upset people. Well from the bottom of my heart I will tell anyone, take your sinful teachings and move on down the road. I will teach my kids the truth. That God only made two genders. God made man and woman to be together and not same sex marriages. That being a drunkard is a sin. You can’t serve God and the world. Most of all there is only one way I to heaven, and that is through the blood of Jesus Christ. Don’t let the world raise your kids. It is your job as a Christian.

1 Thessalonians 5:22-23



22 Abstain from all appearance of evil.

23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.



You know the says, if it quacks, waddles, and looks like a duck, it is probably duck. Well take that same thought of mind and put it to your life. If you talk like the world, you act like the world, and you look like the world, then that is what people will see. Jesus may have had sinners follow him but he never acted like them. He never tried to fit in with them. He instead helped them change to be like him. One excuse I hear people say is “God knows my heart, and it doesn’t matter what people think of me.” If you are a child of God, it doesn’t matter what the world thinks of you, but how can you reach the world when you act, talk, and look like one of them? Think about it. If they don’t know you are a follower of Christ how do they know to ask you about him? They don’t. You may not agree with this but there is a change in someone who comes to Christ. They clean up their speech. They remove actions that hinder them from being a light. They take on the appearance of a Christian. So look, talk, and act like a Christian.

Psalms 107:1 – O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

It is the season of being thankful. You may look at what you don’t have, and think you have nothing to be thankful for. However, if you have accepted Jesus, you have everything to be thankful for. You have eternal life. Stop thinking about what you don’t have and look to Jesus and know you have everything to be thankful for.

Isaiah 55:8-9
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

In this last year, I have set and pondered on the thought of why on so many things. I have wondered how people can be so evil. I have asked why so many good people have to endure suffering. I have prayed and asked God for an understanding of why young men and women with good hearts pass away when it feels like it is before their time. The only answer and comfort I get is this verse. It’s not punishment that we go through these things. It’s not God ignoring us. It is simply his plan and his way. We get upset when the good suffers, but the people who are in sin prosper. We try to find answers on things that we know God only knows why it has come to pass. I know it is hard to say, but we will never truly understand because God’s plan is greater than anything we could imagine. So, when the question of why enters your mind, stop and know the “why” is because deemed it so. Not to punish us, but because it is his will and we must accept it.

Psalms 34:18
The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit

Over the summer, my family experienced a heartbreak. I took it harder than I should have, and I began to slowly feel myself drift away from how close I was with God. It got to the point I stopped posting, I stopped studying the word, and I pretty much stopped ministering. It wasn’t until I went to pray and found it was harder to talk to God than it used to be. I wanted to blame it on my heartbreak, but I should have been moving closer to God to heal that pain. I should have prayed harder, studied more, and held on to God. It was easier to let my grief pull me away from God. But I am no longer going to let that happen. I know that the only thing that will help heartache is God. I encourage you to do the same and know that God wants to help you with your broken heart. He is the only one who can put the pieces back together. Don’t make the mistake I did, hold to God tighter in the hard times.

Ephesians 4:26 – Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:

Here lately, I have e struggled with getting angry. I have had things happen that I found it hard to keep my temper in check. And with every time I would get angry, that little voice of doubt would speak up and say Christians shouldn’t get angry. It really got me down. Then, today, while studying and praying, I realized that it never says that Christian shouldn’t get angry. It says to be angry and sin not. We are human. We have emotions. We are going to get angry. It’s what you do when you get angry. It’s how you act with that anger. It’s what you say when your temper flares up. If it is someone who makes you angry, it is not okay to smack them. Instead, pray for them. Don’t let the anger stew over days. Find a way to let it go because the rest of that verse says don’t let the sun set on your wrath. So, let it go, and pray for them.

Matthew 27

65 Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can.
66 So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.

They thought it was over. They crossed every t and dotted ever i. They sealed the door and put roman soldiers to watch the tomb. They made sure no one could get into the tomb. Well, what they did not expect was what was about to c9me out of the tomb. No seal or amount of guards they put on that stone could stop him. He conquered death, broke the seals, and the guards ran off. Jesus is an unstoppable force, yet many of us act like he can’t fix our situations. The Roman empire, death itself, and the grave could not stop him from conquering them all, so your problems are nothing for him to overcome. Start acting like we serve the one and only son of God.