Christmas Miracle

Posted December 18, 2013

Filed under Prayer, Thoughts on Trusting God

This Christmas I have been led by God to forgo any presents for my children in lieu of putting the money towards time spent with them..

I have never done this before. Presents have always been the focus on Christmas when they really should not of been.

I sensed that God wanted to do something more, something much more amazing this year.

I thought it would work out great. That all things would fall into place.

But although none of my grown and nearly grown children care about the presents, they all have very different ideas of what they want to do on my tiny budget.

I felt led to share this (and the results) because I am Trusting God to somehow make a way in all this.

I am trusting God to bring me a miracle this Christmas.

To bring me and my family peace and joy.

His speciality.

P.s. Prayers Welcome:)

And Merry Christmas

UPDATE

I realize now that I miscalculated…we have ZERO money for Christmas, but I know this is just an opportunity to show how faithful God is…He has NEVER let me down before. Christmas will look exactly like How He planned it to look, I know this because I am giving it to Him and waiting expectantly for Him to come through!!

8 Days and 7 Reasons Why

Posted December 17, 2013

Filed under Thoughts on Trusting God

So I was a work yesterday and I got the thought to count how many more work days until the new year. I was both surprised and sad to find that I would be working only eight more days.

Surprised because it just seemed like it was just October. Sad because it was in October that I trusted God’s leading in my life and gave notice to my employers that I would be leaving at the end of December.

Leaving a job is never easy, but leaving a job that you love, that gives you the money you need to pay your bills and feed your family, and that allows you to work with some awesome people is really hard.

Not to mention the fact that I am leaving in order to stay home, go through everything I own, sell most of it, and then pack the rest in order to move to a Country that I have never been to , and that I do not currently even have a job in.

So why am I doing this?

Why do I insist on planning for a future that seems about as likely as one in which chickens lay square eggs?

For these seven reasons.

1. God is leading me to do this

When I gave my life to Christ I ceased to be the owner of it. I gave the one who designed me, who knows me better than myself, control.

It was not a big sacrifice because I had not really been doing that great a job of controlling it on my own.

Honestly, I was a flat-out mess and as I look back over the 13 years that God has been leading me, I see that He has never once led me to do anything that has been destructive in my life.

So while it looks like I may crash and burn, I know that the “unknown” is really just smoke and mirrors.

2. God answers my prayers

Every time that I have a major decision in my life I bring it to God. Or to be truthful, usually I panic first, then I bring it to God.

Sometimes God will throw open the doors for me, sometimes He will slam them shut, and sometimes I will feel as if I am blindfolded and led step by step before He will reveal the answer.

But never is my prayer ignored, or lost in the shuffle. God hears every prayer and responds in exactly the way He needs to, to get the desired result.

3. God always provided for all my needs

I have been a widow for 5 and ½ years now. Before losing my husband to cancer, I, for the most part, leaned on him to supply our family’s needs.

Since Allan has been gone, it is all God, all the time. And in all these years He has never once let me or my children starve, or go without anything that is needed.

So if God provided in the past, why would He not do so in the future.

4. God’s word says he is “Trustworthy”

Over and over in the Bible it talks about how trustworthy God is. All I need to do is to open up his word and read verses, such as those below, to be strengthened.

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” ~ Joshua 1:9

“Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.” ~ Psalm 9:10

The word (the Bible) is not just ink on paper, it is alive and God leads me through it.

5. God has compelled me

Although I like adventure, I do not like change. I am not one to want to live in a new city every two years, like the friends of my mom.

So while I have always wanted to go to England, I would probably never have moved there as it would have required me to leave the 24 square foot radius I like to call home.

But when God has called you and He compels you to go, it changes everything. I often feel as if I am strapped to the front of a Plane, with England as the target. I could not stop this if I tried, not would I want to.

6. God has counted my days

My husband was only 49 when he left here, my friend’s son only 19. We just do not know how long we have, but despite what the world says, it is not a “crapshoot.”.

God formed me in my mother’s womb and He has counted my days. He has amazing plans for my life that I cannot even imagine.

So I need to allow him to do the work He needs to do in me so that I can see those plans come to fruition, before my time is up.

7. God loves me

God is love! Period. He is the source of all love. He is not hate, or fear, or lack, or misfortune. He is LOVE!

And He loves me (and you) with an everlasting and passionate love.

You are not an accident, nor am I. Because He loves me I know that everything will fall into place just as it should.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So yes I am in the process of letting go of a lot of things,

but I am grabbing ahold of so much more.

And even though I may not yet know what I will one day hold,

I know that it will be amazing because I have a Father who loves me,

who looks out for me, and who is leading me into all good things.

Photo = © Sergey Nivens – Fotolia.com

Sometimes God wants us to “Just Get ‘er Done!”

Posted December 14, 2013

Filed under Thoughts on Trusting God

Whenever my husband had something that needed to be done, he would say, “I’m gonna just get ‘er done.” Which is about just plunging ahead and doing what needs to be done, not thinking about how hard it is, or how much it is not fun to do it, just doing it…like Nike.

It was not long (about two days) after His death that the phrase came back to my mind. I was going to take out the garbage when I opened the door and came face to face (actually foot to face) with a lovely present from one of our grieving cats.

A Dead Mouse…a freshly killed dead mouse.

I immediately had three thoughts, one being the obligatory “EWWWWWW!”

Because I love animals my next was “The poor little guy, I hope that he didn’t suffer.”

The next and last was many thoughts, “I cannot leave him there, which means someone has to move this and Allan is no longer here to do it, which means that someone is me.”

Words cannot adequately describe my feelings about having to move a still warm body of a deceased (at the murderous hands of my beloved cat) mouse.

Yet I knew it needed to be done, so I put my feelings aside (they are fickle and not to be trusted) and after putting on the proper protection,

I just got ‘er done.

Since that day there is a lot of things I have had to do in the absence of my husband. Some easy and some not so easy. But with God’s grace I did them.

Two days ago I graduated with my Bachelors in Biblical Studies and Theology, and about two months ago I was given the call to England. Since that time I have felt both delight that I will be moving there and all sorts of not so brave emotions about …well about the magnitude of it all…but God is with me.

After December is over I am leaving my job, in obedience to His prompting. I do have some money coming in, but not nearly enough to cover the costs of the move to a country that I do not even have a job in.

But I have Gods leading, His prompting that I will get where I need to be when I need to be there.

To that end, God woke me up with a poem…I am not a poem writer. It is obviously simple, but had a lot to say to me and I thought I would share.

Do what you need to do

In order to get where you need to be

So that others may be saved

as you draw them close to me.

Isn’t that what we are all called to do? To “get ‘er done” to just do what “it” takes to draw others to Jesus. But so often we get so caught up in trying to figure out the details of it all that we never get anything of real value accomplished.

What amazing things we as Christians could accomplish if we just did what we were called to do, even if it was hard, no especially when it is hard, and trusted God to take care of the details.

Just Do It!

Life is short. And goes by fast. If my live were a movie it would be half over by now, and it barely just started. So I am adopting Allan’s “just get ‘er done” mindset in order that I may accomplish all that I have been called to accomplish before my piece of film falls from it’s reel.

What is God calling you to do today? Next week? Next year? I am praying for you to “Get ‘er done. Will you pray for me?

Credits

Just Do it Photo ~ © Mariusz Prusaczyk – Fotolia.com

Hazmat suit photo ~ © Real Illusion – Fotolia.com

Not just any ordinary stairs!

Posted December 2, 2013

Filed under Thoughts on Trusting God

I don’t know about you, but for me falling in to doubt is just too easy sometimes.

The other day I ran into a friend who asked me what was new in the England department (for those reading this for the first time, I have openly declared that God has called me to England and I believe it will be this summer). I honestly had nothing new to tell her, no job offers, no place to live, no…nothing! In fact at this point really have nothing solid, “except” what God had spoken to me. She then said excitedly, something that scared me to my core “Well we are all watching you. We can’t wait to see how this unfolds.” I was like “No pressure right?” and then laughed.

But then I was struck with a thought. Or a million of them. Oh my gosh people are watching me! What if I am wrong? How stupid I will look in front of them (and let me just say for a girl who grew up being picked on in school, that is a horrifying thought). What if I just conjured this whole thing up? What if I get to August and have nowhere to live (I gave my landlord notice)? What it I am a bad example to my children, friends, and extended family of how to follow God? What if? What if? What if?

Those what if’s can cause me to go from “doing great” to “want to pull the covers over my head and crawl under the bed” in two seconds flat.

Yet there is a reason that I do not run and hide. There is a reason that I do not allow all the negative questions to drive me into a comatose state. And that reason is Jesus! He says to me

I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.^{^[1]}

Then I am reminded that He is not going to set me up for failure. He is not going to lead me to my doom. God has a great plan for my life!!!

Sure I may not see anything happening yet, and sure I may not have anything tangible to hold on to yet…but I have my faith!

Martin Luther King once said “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”So I have taken the first step…I got the passports for my children and I took the second, I gave notice that I was moving this summer. I took the third, I fasted 45 days. And now I have my foot planted on step number four waiting to lift off.

Do I know when I will get my next step? No. But I do know that I will get the next one because God’s “good plans” that He has for me, mean that good things are in store.

Do I know how many steps there are? No. But I do know that the Awesome God who designed my staircase has made just the right number of them.

And Do I even know where it will lead me? Yes. It will lead to my future, where Gods good plans for my life will be realized.

So I will keep stepping, and believing, and will be excited to watch it all unfold.

What about you? What staircase are you presently on? What at step? I would love to hear about it (Hint, Hint, leave a comment).

I just believe that God would want me to encourage you to believe that His plans for you are more than you can imagine. That you do not have to have it all figured out. That your future is safe in His hands.

So if He is currently telling you to take a step of faith that you are afraid of, remember that it will not end in your destruction as He always has plans for your welfare not for evil to befall you.

He is so very, very good.

He loves you so very much.

Trust Him.

Take the step.

^{^[1]} The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Jeremiah 29:11.

Keep Trusting

Posted November 26, 2013

Filed under Thoughts on Trusting God

So what do you do when you have done everything that you thought you were supposed to do, and you still don’t have success?

What do you do if you have burned all of your bridges and you can’t go back, but you have had a setback and disappointment, and it feels as if everything might just fall apart around you?

You keep trusting God!!!

If you know that God has spoken something to you, than hold on to it. Do not let go of it for nothing!! God does not abandon his own.

The bible says:

“If your child asks for bread, do you trick him with sawdust? If he asks for fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? As bad as you are, you wouldn’t think of such a thing. You’re at least decent to your own children. So don’t you think the God who conceived you in love will be even better?” (Matthew 7:9–11, The Message)

I am no stranger to setbacks, in fact I have recently had one of my own.

I stepped out, doing what I wholeheartedly believe that God called me to do, but I was rejected. It was a kind rejection, yet a rejection non-the-less.

So what am I, a person that has burned all her bridges, supposed to do with the fact that from the outside it looks like God has led me astray (or at the very least, he allowed me to lead myself astray)?

I hold on to that verse and so many, many more that speak of God’s love and heart toward me.

I hold on and believe the God did not lead me all this way to drop kick me to the curb.

I hold on and remind myself that God did not “call” me to England for no reason.

AND

Most Importantly

I hold on to the promise knowing that God did not change His mind!!!!

His promises are sure and trustworthy!!

I can trust Him!!!

And you can trust Him too!!

Credits