Faith And Trust Pry My Fingers Off Control

Where Is Your Hope?

What if God really is who He says He is?

How would today look different if you really believed this?

And what if He really provides how He promises He does…?

…but you just got so off-track listening to what the WORLD says you SHOULD be doing… chase that relationship, buy more stuff, get credit to go into debt to get more credit, fight to hold onto that job when God’s trying to show you something better, go to school for 20 years because someone says that’s just the way it’s done… that you’ve been missing HIS purpose for you?

 

Take delight in THE LORD,
and HE WILL GIVE YOU the desires of your heart. (emphasis added)

Psalm 37:4

 

Simple, right?

Delight in HIM.

He will give you the desires of your heart.

I believe Him. I’ve found this to be true.

 

What do you delight in?

 

He already knows the desires of your heart (and honestly I believe those desires were the things you talked about being and doing when you were little… before the world somehow talked you into believing you COULDN’T.)

Where is your hope?

Isaiah 40:31

but those who hope in the Lord
WILL renew their strength.
They WILL soar on wings like eagles;
they WILL run and not grow weary,
they WILL walk and not be faint. (emphasis added)

It doesn’t say might, or may, or could.

It WILL happen.

Where is your hope?

In your job?

In your degree?

In your bank account?

In your pastor or preacher?

Your friends?

 

God has jobs for each of us to be doing and if we put our hope IN HIM, He WILL make a way where there doesn’t seem to be a way. It’s just something He does. I can’t explain it.

It’s all about Him.

We lost our way.

The enemy set up A LOT of detours for us and we fell for just about all of them listening to the father of lies.

We buy houses, toys, and stuff (WAY too much stuff,) stress over busy schedules we often plan for ourselves (or we allow others to put on us,) worrying about what we’ll have tomorrow so much that we’re missing the “today” He wants for us.

But God’s got this.

Matthew 6:33

But seek FIRST His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things (what we’ll eat, drink, and wear) will be given to you as well. (emphasis added)

 

Sometimes even when we DO ask for His direction and He answers, we take it and tell Him, “Thanks, God. I’ve got it from here.”

But we don’t.

He wants constant contact with us all through the day and even at night when we wake up. That whole pray without ceasing thing… He wants to stay connected to us.

I don’t know what your prayer life looks like but would you feel close to someone who talks to you as much or little as you talk with God?

 

HE opens doors for you that your enemies cannot shut and He also shuts doors to redirect you that no friend can open.

 

What if that “distraction” today really isn’t a distraction at all?

What if that is exactly where your attention is needed most?

What if God’s tugging on your heart to start a ministry there?

 

I hear about so many people who are unsatisfied at the end of the day.

It’s because when we’re not living FOR Him then life FEELS empty.

He wants ALL of us.

He even wants our bodies to be a “living sacrifice” for Him.

And that’s not even anything exceptional or special.

He says it’s our “reasonable” service back to Him.

Romans 12:1b

…present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

You are a soul and God has given you a body to be used FOR Him.

(Please know when I talk about this I’m also talking to myself. I’ve used my body and others did too in ways that were NOT pleasing to God at all.)

If your boss loans you a car to use for business use, but instead you use it for personal use, do you think there may be consequences?

 

Sometimes following Him is fun. And it’s also scary and exciting and terrifying. But it’s always good.

And when God puts a ministry in your heart you don’t have to wonder if He’ll provide support for it.

Who cares if it looks impossible?!

He WILL provide when you keep putting your hope in HIM.

He did not say to put your hope in your friends, or your teacher, or what your preacher thinks, your bank account, or the church’s “Missions Committee,” or your mom.

He said to put your hope in HIM.

He is MORE than enough.

HE has UNLIMITED resources and He knows how to send what we need when we need it.

 

Is that really so hard to believe?

 

It doesn’t really matter what the modern-day Pharisees say either. (In fact, God has work for them to be doing also and I’ve gotta believe it’s something more than critiquing the ministry you feel called to… If they believed as much as they profess they do, then they’d realize He already has a purpose for each of them also. When they have courage to ask Him, and choose to listen to Him, I have no doubt He’ll reveal more to them.)

Ephesians 2:10

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Sometimes God plants a ministry in your heart and He spends a long, long, long time teaching us things He will have us use then.

When we rush things, we miss some of His training….

…Sometimes He wants to reach us through those tough conversations with others, or dealing with that guy at the office, or the time you didn’t know how to pay the bills, or when your child was sick, the time you had to move, or when your marriage was falling apart … EVERY moment is another moment to trust more IN HIM.

Staying in prayer asking Him to lead every day opens more opportunity to see Him working and creates a peace that I don’t even know how to explain.

What I’ve learned is that Faith and Trust pry my fingers off of Control.

The days I’m most unsatisfied are the days I’m trying to control too much.

Giving HIM control of MY schedule and MY body changes …well, everything.

The reason I can’t stop talking about this stuff is because if He can do what He has done with me, then I cannot WAIT to hear what He does with you.

 

Matthew 11:28

Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

 

 

People keep saying God doesn’t lead today.

Maybe the reason so many people say God doesn’t lead them today is because people keep saying, “He can’t.”

Think about it.

If someone kept saying (or believing) that He doesn’t or won’t or can’t do something today in 2016, then why would He?

He has nothing to prove to anyone.

God says

 My sheep hear My Voice, and I know them, and they follow Me:  – John 10:27

My prayer is that God moves in people’s lives so big that they cannot help but see Him work in their lives (and then share it.)

I get it.

I was 40 something before I ever “felt called” by God to do something. I remember vaguely what life was like before that but life is WAY more satisfying after finally beginning to walk in faith.

The truth is that I have heard about Jesus my whole life but I never realized I wasn’t giving Him my time (which is something I believe He wants from everyone.)

My time was my god and God wants NO OTHER gods before Him.

You know how I know this?

Because He says

You shall have no other gods before Me. – Exodus 20:3

I mostly lived every day -for years- without a thought or prayer asking God what He may want me to do with the time He gifted to me.

It’s funny when you tell people you feel God tugging on your heart to do something.

Many will probably tell you it’s not true or it can’t be done.

The thing I can’t figure out is…

Do Christians really not believe God -The Creator of everything- is big enough to put a dream in someone’s heart?

Or is it that He just wouldn’t choose a certain person to give a God-sized dream to?

WE (humans) mostly decide stuff by how someone looks or their credentials or status or bank account or whatever. (By the way, I can’t find it in The Bible where God is actually impressed by all that.)

Something I do read about God says this:

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” – 1 Samuel 16:7

Over the past couple years I’ve learned that when you share that you feel called by God to do something, lots of people are quick to tell you how wrong you’re doing it.

Or they’ll tell you how they would do it.

Or they’ll even be upset that you’re not doing it how they SEE you should be doing it.

Some people tell us “THIS is how it works” and continue on to tell us how they would be doing it. “Do this thing. Then this. Then this. And there you go. That’s gotta work.”

Okay.

Thank you. (Sincerely.)

But

Then

Where is faith in that?

Where does faith come in?

How would faith work into this if I try to accomplish this on my own?

God says

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing. – John 15:5

I’ve heard of people who kick the doors down and don’t wait for God to open them and I’m CERTAIN I do NOT want to do it that way though I’ve tried my way and my timing for many other things in the past. (And it didn’t work out well then, either.)

It’s no secret that I feel April 1^st is a very important date and I had felt like God may be moving us April 1, 2014, but maybe the April 1^st thing is truly God letting me know He’s calling us to live out our faith even when it looks foolish to others. And we’ll keep on doing it as long as He keeps opening doors and leading us to do this work.

Someone came to tell me (a couple years ago) that I didn’t know what I was talking about and that “God doesn’t work that way anymore.”

But

Hebrews 13:8 says

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

I’m glad that happened (though I wasn’t at the moment) because I realized something important. God didn’t put a year on my heart.

There are a lot of Aprils in the world.

There’s an April every year.

And we can look back more than 15 years ago to see how God was already doing this work in us. (We just didn’t know how or when or where or that it was for homeless people at that time. We did know it was a church camp kinda place and it was for youth.)

What I do know is that after God put it on my heart and began opening doors to this move to Alaska to open a homeless youth place, I was pacing, excitedly, back and forth one day in our house in Texas, “God, Okay. Got it! Alaska Homeless Youth Center! Now how can I make this happen? HOW do I do this?”

That’s the day He put it on my heart that HE is the ONE DOING this and our family is just to be obedient to what we feel He’s calling us to do.

Whew! Okay. That sounds a lot easier than me trying to figure all this out!

God says

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. – James 1:27

So if God tells us to help orphans and we feel He’s literally calling us to go do that, don’t you think He’s big enough to provide the way?

People tell us to use our best logic. (Logic is not found in The Bible, by the way. I checked recently.)

But God says

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean NOT on your OWN understanding; in ALL your ways submit to Him, and HE WILL make your paths straight. – Proverbs 3:5-6

So we’re going to choose to believe Him.

God is The Author of time and if He’s put a dream in your heart, He will be faithful to complete it. He knows what we need to do the work and He is not limited to a budget of people or supplies or money. (Thankfully!)

People may begin to tell you that it’s not possible or other silly things. (The truth is that if we were ALL doing what God is calling us to do then there wouldn’t be time left for people to critique what He’s calling YOU to do.)

We don’t have to grow up, get a degree, have a billion in savings, gather a committee, find supporters, or anything like that. If we follow Him, He’s got the rest.

Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I WILL MAKE YOU fishers of men.” – Matthew 4:19

When you share a dream He’s given you, it may really take you by surprise who is not supportive.

God may ALSO surprise you by giving you peace and confirming that support will come from where HE wants it to come from (and that’s pretty cool.)

All I can figure about that is that He will provide how HE wants to provide. (Perhaps He’s not wanting a certain person’s name or church’s name on it “so that none can boast.”)

Pray for peace confirmation when someone is not supportive. He’s got this. And He’s bigger than people realize.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “As the Heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts. – Isaiah 55:8-9

People may tell you that you’re not doing it fast enough. (For who? For them?)

So many people want everything faster in 2016.

But what about waiting on The Lord?

Waiting on God in 2016 looks… well, foolish. (April 1st kinda foolish, maybe.)

Some people tell us our family is not doing enough because we’re waiting on Him. Some people think we should be doing MORE as we wait on Him. More what? Planning my way? Saving my way? I couldn’t make this happen His way if I’d known about it my whole life.

Waiting on God is a form of worship in itself.

(God says you’ll be persecuted for your faith so I’m not surprised to be persecuted. It was just a little surprising that it comes mostly from other Christians.)

But

We’re doing what we feel we’re supposed to be doing as we wait on Him, which actually is enough.

We’re not going back and we’re not giving up as long as He keeps opening doors and leading us to this work.

We’re asking, seeking, and knocking, and He WILL open doors in His timing and in His ways.

I can’t find it in The Bible that we’re to figure it out on our own and gather the resources on our own.

Besides, if we did this ourselves, then how would that be giving glory to Him? How would that show His Power and not mine?

“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. – Luke 11:9-10

He’s got this.

[More about this Alaska homeless youth place here.  Prayers are always welcome here.]

Important Stuff

I’ve been thinking a lot about “education,” intelligence, experience, and even God-given talents and how sometimes we seem to feel like someone is “smarter” than someone else… when maybe our view cannot see the big picture.

When we get to Heaven, God may not be all that impressed with how many diplomas we have, how much is in our 401k, where we went to college, or if our kids went to public school, private school, homeschool, or whatever.

I do know God is going to ask each of us what we did with the talents He gave us. I hope we hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”

And I know some people aren’t sure God is real or if Heaven or Hell is real. I hope we don’t wait and find out it’s too late to ask Him. If you’re not sure, ask God to show you who He is. He does this. He’s okay with us asking Him questions.