Believing God for what seems impossible....

God continues to show me a new thing (or things) I need to believe Him for -- constantly challenging my faith. For me, it helps to have a visual reminder. Its kind of a silly thing I do, but its something God calls me to do for the 'big' things, so I do it even though its a little strange! Here's what it is: God has me write my "impossible thing" on a sheet of white paper. I write it in some shade of red (signifying the blood of Christ which covers us all), fold it up, and nail it to a tree or something wooden (representative of the cross), and leave it there until God answers. I've only done this 2 times previously. This is a picture of the the last one that I nailed up to a tree in our backyard in June. Steve removed it from the tree on the final weekend in Conway before loading the truck to move here. When he handed it to me and I realized what it was, I was amazed all over again at the ways God works. When He first clued us in about moving, I assumed it would be in another year. Because for it to happen in less than the 2 months we had left of summer seemed IMPOSSIBLE. Even yesterday, He challenged me to write down 2 more things and nail them up...no tree here but instead on a post in our carport where I love to sit outside and do Bible study, read my Chronological Bible, or just hang out watching the kids play. This strange thing is the way He deals with me (sometimes I wonder if He's thinking "Is she ever going to get it, for crying out loud?!") -- because a weakness for me is discouragement over things that seem impossible. But when I see the thing hanging up out there, I am reminded that God is in control of that and He will enable that which He has called us to do. God is teaching me over and over again that He is the God of the impossible and if it seems impossible to my eyes, then all glory, honor, and praise will be given to Him when He works it out because it was impossible without His miraculous intervention. Things that seem possible and something I can figure out on my own, leave no room for God's miraculous power. And there's nothing more thrilling than seeing and experiencing His miraculous power.

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I had an amazing conversation with Noah last night about prayer and how God answers. A game of his doesn't work and he was upset because He prayed to God and asked Him to fix it, but He didn't. He said "I know He can, but He won't!" as tears streamed down his face. Wow, what an amazing opportunity to talk with him about something that is hard for even us grown ups. What do we do when we 'believe God' for something, especially something huge, and God doesn't come through the way we wanted? "Blessed is he, whosever, shall not be offended in me." Matt 11:6 I relied on God to help me explain that God isn't Santa Claus...that He doesn't give us everything on our wish list, but that we have to be just as okay with the NOs as we are with the YES's. Hard thing sometimes, but that's God's sovereignty. He is the Creator God, He knows us better than anyone, He loves us, He has the eyes to see all things, the past, the future, the things He's trying to teach us or grow in us....and we can't stay mad at God even when we don't understand what He is up to...we just have to trust Him and move on. This was a point made by Beth Moore at the conference I attended recently...she said "Nothing can throw us any more in our faith walk that when God doesn't do everything we understood or knew Him to be and do....we are filled with anger, fear, confusion, and end up holding our hearts far from Him because we cannot trust Him. The enemy is banking on us not getting over it...getting stuck there. Everyone WILL have a test of being offended with God." My favorite example she used was the death of Lazarus. When Christ called him to come forth out of the grave did Lazarus say "No! You should have never let me die in the first place! Where were you when I needed you! How could you have let this happen? I'm not coming out, forget it!" We may never understand the WHY's....but we must have the courage to MOVE ON and not stay stuck in being offended. Wow...what a lesson for me. I have my list of opportunities to be offended by things God allowed or didn't allow to happen. Sometimes it took me months to move on, sometimes weeks, sometimes days. Its one of the hardest things ever in life to me when its a big, huge thing. I pray that I never get stuck there when that opportunity arises....I choose to dive into His Word until He speaks to me in exactly the way my heart needs and in His power and His love and His grace, I can move on. I pray for my will to be His will, not my own so there will be less opportunities to be offended because I will only be praying what He wills. And back to Noah....I am AMAZED at the depth of spiritual things that can be learned at a very young age that can set the stage for the rest of your life. Wow....God help me to teach my kids Your ways and help it to take root deep in their hearts.