“For 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. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:11-13
“Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.” Jeremiah 33:3
“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” Psalms 46:10
“But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you. Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life.” Isaiah 43:1-4
So many more verses come to mind, but those I thought I would share!
I will be quiet transparent with this post! So many good things are happening! We are about to celebrate 5 years in pastoring our church here in Rockland, and finally Chris is able to work at church full time. The church is growing and we are moving into a new service starting this Sunday–total of 3 services on Sunday! We are so excited!! God is also doing some great things in our family, God is really speaking and guiding us…not that He hasn’t before, but there is something very awesome about all that is going on in our lives!
With all the good that has and continues to happen, the devil is not liking all this….he has been fully at work in our minds filling it with doubt, fears and insecurity. I say that because with all the good, we have had a good share of some of the bad…
The day that Chris was bringing in his resignation letter, our car broke down. First it was a couple of leaks that needed to be fixed with a hefty price tag. The car has been in the shop since last week. This past Monday, we found out that the whole engine needed to be replaced with an even more costly price tag than the first. We had a vehicle parked at church all winter because there was no heat and had plans on selling it this summer after it was fixed. Thank God, we had it because we really needed to use it. Two days ago, that car also stopped working after. We have smaller car that Chris bought over the winter, which I refer to as his little “old putter car” because it makes a lot of noise but has been good to our family because it enabled Chris to go back and forth to work with all the snow in the winter. Because of the car’s age, it has some quirky things to it. Like the window doesn’t roll down or up sometimes…yesterday, the window didn’t go up at all and it still has not gone up and just seems like it the car could stop working at any minute! As I picked Chris up from work at 10pm, the girls kept saying they were freezing in the car and Zac was crying because my window was open with it being less than 30 degrees outside! Thankful for the blanket a friend gave us to borrow from Chris’s work to put on the kids on the ride home!
Yesterday, I had about had it and finally cried while I was driving back from bringing Chris to work…I just really needed to get what I was feeling out. The car repair price tag was enough to really rock my boat because there is no human possible way that we could afford the expenses but yet, we need this car to be fixed because we CANNOT purchase a new car. The other vehicle not working was another to set me off with more insecurity. I just feel like someone is beating us up! This whole thing is probably trivial to some and it might even be stupid!
All I want is to be obedient to God, that is our desire as a family-to be obedient to God, to take the steps necessary to get us closer to Him! Chris resigning from his other job is a step of faith because it requires going out with some of the important things, in my mind-like health insurance. We keep praying that Zac or the girls won’t get sick till we find a way for them to be covered. Even though I think we will be required to do without certain things, resigning will finally enable him to be more available for the church and we can finally do the things we need to do there that we haven’t been able to in the last 5 years! There is so much potential!
Like I said, there are so many good things and these are just simply set backs–but even God can take the things that the devil uses to beat us up and causes us to fear or doubt God’s work in our lives and use it to show His glory to us. To show us that He will keep taking care of us! Not sure how things will continue to unfold, but is say this as confidently as I am writing this, that “Everything WILL BE OK!” I am CONSTANTLY learning to have faith and just Trust in Him! God has never left us behind, He has ALWAYS Provided and will continue to! I am not going to let the devil use our circumstances to doubt God’s constant work in our lives!
I am constantly reminding myself about the pastors and the families I met in the Philippines! I am reminding myself about the message I heard a couple weeks ago being about God being my Refuge and my Fortress and with that All is well….I am diving into the Word and relying on God’s continued promise for us!! I am humbled during this time…yes, I know, our struggle the past couple of weeks may not compare to what many of you face each day, but this is me, being real about the refining moments and how God is teaching me!
My prayer the other day:
“If all this STUFF, the hard stuff, the things that kind of really rocks my thinking and challenges my faith. If all of this is happening just so You can get my attention, to draw me closer to You, to know Who You are and what You are able to do in me, to show me You are real so that I can tell others about You and Your Faithfulness—then, LET IT BE! Do what You need to, so that people will see You through the way I react, the way I praise, the way I live, just simply the way I make it! I am Your child, Have Your Way in me! Amen!”
