I had an important job interview a couple of weeks ago (I am still waiting to hear), and at the very end of it I made a statement that I wished, immediately, I hadn’t made. It wasn’t something horrid – it was just something I wished I hadn’t revealed about myself at this point in the process, know what I mean?
For a couple of days I kept thinking about it and wondering why I even said it. Then I felt directed to open my Bible to Luke 21: 14-15 and the words of Jesus filled my heart. ‘Do not think about what you will say beforehand. Go in my Spirit and I will give you the words to say.’
I have done much preparation to follow God’s leading and I know that I a vessel willing to speak what God would have me speak, and so I relaxed…evidently that was what I was supposed to say. Whatever happens will be God’s plan unfolding – not mine. I trust that I have done what I am supposed to do, and if the job doesn’t happen, it is because it is not the right job for me.
As I wait to hear if I got this job, I am working on other parts of my faith – patince, letting go, hope, joy, peace, obedience. You know – the virtues which are the hardest ones ot master…pray for me.
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: 8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. 9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? 10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? 11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? Matthew 7:7 -11
Storms will come, count on it.
Times may come when you feel God is asleep,
not taking care of you, protecting you.
“Don’t you care?” you will pray.
Of course God cares, but just isn’t worried. Not at all.
You see, you are perishing, my dear, bit by bit.
God won’t take that from you,
won’t come between you and the storm,
but will go through it with you.
Even as the waves of your fear
wrap their white knuckles around your boat
there he is, curled in the stern,
unworried, vulnerable, babylike, willing.
Do you think he’ll let it sink if he’s in it?
When Jesus, drenched with your life,
cries, “Peace, be still,”
who do you think he’s talking to?
The calm of a storm-free life
might indeed be, as the writer says,
a dead one.
And if this really is the last chapter of your life,
won’t you have had
exactly what both of you want the most—
to be together through it all?
Each new step in life is also a leaving, a surrendering of an old reality to move into a new one.
Be grateful for the love that surrounds you, and for the opportunities you have to love. Be mindful of your place in this world, and your connection to people you care about. Never doubt that you are loved, though those who love you may be far away. Spend your love recklessly; it will never be wasted. It is the spending, not the result, that enriches us.
Pay attention to the moment that you’re in. It will pass. It is a transition, not a final destination. Love in this moment. Receive what this moment offers you. Be lovingly attentive to what is, in the present moment. What comes next is full of promise, not the least of which is this: that there will always be more love. Trust this, and let God’s delight fill you.
In this day of ‘instant’ everything, the practice, and importance, of patience is ignored…a lot. Ok, I can understand why – it’s HARD! haha Our natural inclination is to want-what-we-want and then go and get it, or do it. Yet patience and waiting are extremely important and valuable in life, and with learning to trust God.
Growing our faith depends on our ability to wait on listening, and waiting, for the voice of God. Not and easy task, but, oh so worth it!
I have learned a lot of patience over the years. God has blessed me with many lessons in waiting, and developing, my patience. I do not feel like I have gained ‘virtue’ status – ha – maybe I never will. It is a challenge for me each and every time. Yet I know the value, I trust God’s timing over my own impulse and I am willing to keep attempting to wait gracefully each time I am called to do so.
I no longer want to live my life my own way. I know God has much better plans for me than I can accomplish on my own – and so, once again I am at a moment of waiting. The pause. The void. The hope. The risk. The possible disappointment. The struggle to walk in peace. The letting go. The constant prayer communication to allow me to let whatever happens be right.
It’s a balancing, see saw, circus act for me – I go up – I go down – and I give thanks for the process as it is teaching me and growing my faith in this amazing God who has been so faithful to me and brought me right here, to where I should be, on this path of grace.
For a girl like me it is nothing less than amazing, incredible, awe-inspiring! and it fuels my passion to keep growing, letting go further and further as I am consumed by the unfathomable love that gives me all good things! I was just blessed to read the book Flirting With Faith by Joan Ball. It encouraged me so much at this particular moment. I highly recommend it.
All I can do is fall on my face in gratitude and gladly give up….myself…my wants…my life…my all.
Yes, the waiting is the hardest part in some ways – yet also the most important and the most blessed as well. The valley is where you become intimate and learn to trust. Nothing can take its place and no one can take that from you. I know – I’ve been there! I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. It is my truth – in my times of patience I have seen the face, and heard the voice, of God.
The Waiting
by Tom Petty
Oh baby don’t it feel like heaven right now
Don’t it feel like something from a dream
Yeah I’ve never known nothing quite like this
Don’t it feel like tonight might never be again
We know better than to try and pretend
Baby no one coulda ever told me ’bout this
I said yeah yeah
The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you see one more card
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part
Well yeah I might have chased a couple women around
All it ever got me was down
Then there were those that made me feel good
But never as good as I’m feeling right now
Baby you’re the only one that’s ever known how
To make me wanna live like I wanna live now
I said yeah yeah
The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you get one more yard
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part
Oh don’t let it kill you baby, don’t let it get to you
Don’t let it kill you baby, don’t let it get to you
I’ll be your bleedin’ heart, I’ll be your cryin’ fool
Don’t let this go too far
Ok, this cracked me up – and made me a think! So true for most of us! Yes, I have ‘the need to please others’ so ingrained into my thinking, it seems I battle it every day!
I watched an unconventional wedding video a few minutes ago of my eldest daughter, Krista, who turned 25 yesterday. She is a beautiful, smart, incredibly talented and giving woman – who is very blessed to have a relationship which has given her something she has always been searching for – unconditional love and friendship. This has been my prayer for her for so many years – that she would be truly loved by someone for who she is. That is all. Unconditional love is the key to living.
Her lifestyle is not what I would have chosen for her – she is in a world which can be dangerous and I worry about her and where her choices can lead. I want only good for her. However, it is her life and her choice to live how she has chosen. I wish her, and my new son-in-law and grandchild, only happiness and I was moved to tears by the words they spoke to each other, the healing which this love has brought to her. I know the depth of her emotion. I know how much she cares and loves. I know how badly she has been hurt by life, by my own actions as her mother – when I made choices no mother should have to make and she got caught in my choices, in my pain and her own – as a child she had no way to understand, nothing but pain and hurt from age 10 on. She was in a world which she did not understand and which did not understand her.
I am so grateful and happy for this place in her journey and how much this love is restoring to her. I am hopeful that I can be a part of her living, of her joy and her future – the love, heartaches and blessings and hard times.
Yesterday, as I thought about the day she came into the world – the most beautiful baby ever born up to that minute (ok, I’m a little biased on that one – haha), I was so overwhelmed by those feelings I had as I looked in her face for the first time and prayed that I might keep her safe and be a good mother to her. It has been an incredibly tough journey and I have failed her in so many ways, yet, I have loved her, and her brother and sister with a love which is bigger than I can ever put into words. My mothers’ heart has placed these children in God’s hands and I am so blessed, more than she may ever know, that she is my daughter.
There are no accidents and I trust God has plans I cannot see. I do not have all the answers – I believe unconditional love is always right and the way to healing. All I know is – I am so blessed and so thankful in this moment. I know for sure that life is good – we are good. God has declared it and it is so!
The important thing is not what you have to do,
but that you belong.
God does not demand. God gives.
You are not a slave to laws you must not break;
you belong to a love that is unbreakable.
God does not want anything from you,
just you.
Not for some purpose removed from you,
not to believe in God or to glorify God,
but just to be with God. Just to be God’s.
God does not say, “Follow my rules or else.”
God says, “I love you.” There is nothing else.
Who you are is not about you.
You are God’s, that’s who you are.
You are what results
when God cannot contain her joy.
You can let go of everything,
your sorrows and joys, your suffering and triumphs,
your personality, your self-made self,
and just be God’s.
nd of it I made a statement that I wished, immediately, I hadn’t made. It wasn’t something horrid – it was just something I wished I hadn’t revealed about myself at this point in the process, know what I mean?
life: acoustic & amplified 