God is cool!

He is a lot more than that, but He is also cool!!!

He always, always, always gives me what I need to keep going.

When God called me to England, I immediately began telling everyone because I am a follower of Jesus Christ and as John 10:27 says

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

I knew, that I knew, that I knew that the Holy Spirit had called me.

Immediately I felt a deep longing for a place that I had never been.

I felt compelled to leave everything behind and go, for no other reason than because I knew God told me to, and that was enough.

At the time…for a while….as long as I stayed focused on God and not on the world.

But then life happened…pressures mounted.

Oh I can take the fact that 9 out of 10 people think I am crazy, I could take the fact that I had to leave a home I love and sell everything in it to go to a place I have never been (Actually I love adventure so that worked) in a short amount of time (August 1^st…that’s really close) but what I have the hardest time with is my Kids.

What is the hardest thing is my four kids (all grown, but the one who will come with me). I have some awesome kids, and as most mothers I would lay down my life for any of them in a heartbeat. But God is not asking me to lay down my life for them, but for Him.

Because I am his child, He understands my heart. He understands my getting sidetracked with sadness of leaving them and worries about how it will all work out, and He knows that I need encouragement to stay on track.

One of the ways that He is encouraged me is to guide me to Francis Chan, not in person but on video. I was encouraged as Francis spoke of what God was doing in his life, as he shared about living courageously with and for God.

It was exactly what I needed at the time to keep going.

That is why I think God is cool!

Just when I think I am the only one…when I think I am not strong enough for the load that I think I have to carry, God reminds me that I am not alone, and I am strong enough, stronger than I thing, because He is with me and is my strength.

So if you are feeling discouraged, or not up to the task that God has laid before you,

Lean into God.

Trust the Holy Spirit to lead and guide you into all that God has for you, and remember you are stronger than you realize because you have a very cool God who cares enough about you to give you what you need to keep going strong.

Photo © jesadaphorn – Fotolia.com

God wants us to hold on to His promises even when it looks like they will never come true and that He has abandoned us.

Below author and speaker Shelia Walsh talks about holding on and trusting God, even when it feels as if we have been abandoned by Him.

She discusses what it was like to go from Christian TV host in the morning and Physic Ward patient in the evening, She talks about how, even though she “felt” abandoned, God let her know that He was with her.

I think it’s interesting that so often the promises of God become most real when you find yourself in a place that’s almost the antithesis of the promise. …

Romans 8 is one of my favorite chapters of the Bible. It begins with, “No condemnation,” and ends with, “No separation.” And I used to cling onto that, that nothing can separate us from the love of God.

But in that place where I felt like I’d been abandoned, I discovered that God knew exactly — in fact, I had an encounter with an angel, the only one I’ve ever been aware of, before or since — about 3:00 in the morning… I heard someone come into my room and I didn’t even look up, but they walked right up to me and stood in front of me and I saw a man’s feet, so I looked up. Looked to me just like a hospital worker going off duty, but he put something in my hands, and it was a little -it was a lamb, like a stuffed toy, and he turned and went to the door, and when he got to the door, he stopped and he turned around and he said, “Sheila, the Shepherd knows where to find you.”

And at the darkest moment in my life, when I felt as if anything that gave me any value as a human being, I heard the greatest news of my life, that no matter how lost you feel, the Shepherd knows where to find you.

I heard her tell that story years ago during a Women of Faith conference and it always stuck with me because it shows that it does not matter how we “feel,” we as Christians need to daily walk in the truth that we are never alone!