Tag Archives: surrender

Waiting and Finding Balance

Posted on by
10

I really want to be able to write more. 

I want to be able to write more here on my blog.

I want to be able to write more about my story and my testimony so that others can find encouragement in it.

I want to be able to write devotionals and books that will glorify God’s Kingdom and change people’s lives.

I have this feeling that God wants me to write. He keeps placing the thoughts into my head and putting things into my path that keep pointing me in that direction.

I keep hearing many earthly voices telling me that I am a great writer.

God always answers our prayers.

Always.

But sometimes, the answer is “not right now.”
I keep hearing that whisper.

“Not right now daughter, I am still preparing the way.”

Right now, I need to focus on finding a new place for our family to live. I need to focus on packing things up and getting ready to move. I need to focus on Jesus. I need to focus on my family.

I need to focus on finding a way to earn some income to help my family.

It is not easy to find a job in today’s economy. Especially when you have been out of the work force for a very long time. It is not easy to find a job where I would make enough money to pay for childcare. It is not easy to find a job that is willing to work the hours that I am available to work.

So I have been hunting and searching for something, anything that would fit.

I recently found a blog called Real Ways to Earn Money Online. On this site, I found an enormous wealth of information on freelance writing resources. My husband had mentioned freelance writing a while back and I had been tumbling it around in my head, but I had no idea where to begin. God always answers prayers.

I know I may not immediately get hired, but I at least have a starting point. I know I will not be able to write what I really want to or to write where my passion falls, but at least it may bring in some money, I will still be writing in some form, I will be gaining experience, and I will be getting my name out there and building a resume.

God always answer prayers.
It just may not look how we had thought it would.

And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.
~Hebrews 6:15~

Surrendering the Stuff

Posted on by
7

It is truly amazing to me how everything seems to work in God’s plan and how he carefully lays out the things you need to hear or experience.

As I said before, I am doing the updated Beth Moore study, David: Seeking a Heart Like His. Each week, it seems as if this study was made for this particular season of change that I (and my family) is going through. I love it when God meets us right where we are at.

Our family is moving. We are leaving our current house and moving to another one.

Our plans to move is twofold.
One part financial and one part God’s work.

As the economy has continued to go downhill with the cost of everything continually rising and my husbands hours at work have not been so plentiful, we have become financially strapped. I have been looking for a job, but the job market is so overcrowded right now, that someone with my limited hours is not a very desirable employee.

Would we be okay where we are at right now? Yes, probably. My husband’s job, while having fewer hours, is stable. But we had to sit down and discuss do we really want to continue clawing our way through where we are right now just so we can stay in this particular house?

We prayed and talked and prayed and talked and prayed some more.

The answer was NO!

We do not want to continue on the path we are currently on. We do not want to keep scratching and clawing our way through life. That is not what God wants for us.

‘The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you:’
~2 Samuel 7:11b~

This is a piece of scripture that was pointed out during the video of today’s bible study.

Our house has become quite cluttered and unsettled in the almost 10 years we have lived here. The last year or so, we have gotten tired of it. We have gotten exhausted with it. And yet, it was such a burden upon us that we did not even know where to start. We had become surrounded by “stuff;” stuff that had no meaning. We, just as David, had built our own house. God has shown us that we need to allow Him to build our house up.

He {Jesus} is the one who will build a house for my Name…..
~2 Samuel 7:13a~ 

It’s all just stuff.
It all belongs to God.

What is truly important are the promises of God. 

O Sovereign Lord, you are God! Your words are trustworthy, and you have promised these good things to your servant. 
~2 Samuel 7:28~ 

He has already promised us huge blessings. (Romans 8:28)
We just need to surrender and accept them.

My life growing up was very dysfunctional.
There were not a lot of promises.
There were not a lot of blessings.
There was not a lot of love.
There was not a lot of trust.
There was not a lot of hope.
There was no God.

It has taken a long time to heal from many experiences in my past. But God has helped me through them. He has brought me a long way. I am certainly not where I want to be, but I am no longer where I was. God has blessed me beyond anything I could ever dream of or hope for.

I started in a home that had very little material things. We did not have a lot of money. We scraped and clawed most of the time. So when I became a mother, I wanted to pour out onto my children everything that I never had. I bought things. I gave them things. I gifted them with things. I provided them with things that I never had.

What God has opened up my eyes to in the last month, is that it is just things. Even thought I did not have things when I was growing up, that is not what I was really yearning for. What I was yearning for was love, comfort, touch, compassion, and hope. I yearned for a functional and loving family. Not things.

I have given that to my children.
I love my children more than I could ever imagine loving anything.
I show them love.
I comfort them in times of need.
I give them a hug at least 5 times a day.
I give them hope for a future through Jesus.

I don’t need to give them things.

Since we have made the decision to downsize from our house, to get rid of “stuff” and to move into an apartment, I have never felt more at peace. It’s like God has cleared out the emotional clutter that I had tied to all those things and replaced it with what I had always yearned for; a functional, loving, and hopeful family.

I can honestly say this is one of the happier times in my life.

Yes, we have to move.
Yes, we have to get rid of a lot of our stuff.

What God is replacing all that “stuff” with is amazing. It is almost unexplainable unless you have experienced it yourself.

I hope to continue to take you with me through this journey our family is embarking on.
I know I will be learning and growing with God through this.
I pray that I can give you a new perspective as well.

equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
~Hebrews 13:21~