100 Posts, 7 reasons, and 1 freaken amazing quote

100

Anyone who knows me knows I suck at blogs (can I say that…ok I “stink” at them).

I have tried (and failed) at starting a blog more times that I can shake a stick at (whatever the heck that means).

To me blog writing always equaled homework (something I had to do) and so I started many blogs that were fated to die a quick death. I thought I was done…but then God…

Trusting God (this blog) was different because

1. God put on my heart to start a blog (wasn’t sure about what)

2. I mentioned it to my pastor (because I knew my history)

3. We prayed

4. The idea popped in my head,  I was amazed “Trusting God” that plus my writing is what I do, the perfect fit

5. I took a step of faith and for the first time payed for a professional blog, professional layout, and all the fixings (as God led …usually my blogs were freebies with lots of distracting adds)

6. I quickly fell in love with posting (why because I love God with all my heart and know that encouraging Christians to trust him just that much more, is my thing.

7. This is the 100th post….proof that there is a God!!! 

In honor of that fact I offer up the following From All in From Mark Patterson

“When did we start believing that God wants to send us to safe places to do easy things? That faithfulness is holding the fort?That playing it safe is safe? That there is any greater privilege than sacrifice?  That radical is anything but normal?

Jesus didn’t die to keep us safe. He died to make us dangerous.

Faithfulness is not holding the fort. It is storming the gates of hell.

The will of God is not an insurance plan. It’s a daring plan.

The complete surrender of your life to the cause of Christ isn’t radicle it’s normal.

It’s time to quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death.

It’s time to go all in and all out for the All in All.

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Ps Thanks to all who have read, liked, or added this blog. It encourages me to keep going:)

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 Photo= © robynmac – Fotolia.com

 

What it means to have God as father

To know God as Father means to have a healer who will calm the storms that rage within. It means to have a father who will help you to “be strong, courageous, and firm; [and] be not in terror … for it is the Lord your God who goes with you; He will not fail you or forsake you.”[1] To know God as Father means to know what it is like to have a father who is “gracious and merciful, slow to anger, [and] abundant in kindness.[2] And it means being able to trust a father who will never hurt you or let you down. You can trust God! He is with you now.

(Taken from Chapter two of my Book To Know God as Father


[1] (Deuteronomy 31:6 AMP)
[2] (Nehemiah 9:17 AMP).

8 Days and 7 Reasons Why

choosingtosee

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

Or

              “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.

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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

Trusting God For The Hard Things Is Not Always So Easy

Don’t be like this Girl!

Not just any ordinary stairs!

Stairs

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.