In All Things, Good

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.  For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.  And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.”  Romans 8:28-30

 God has spoken these verses over my life for the past year too many times for me to even count or retell you at this moment.  It has come to me at times of great sorrow and weeping when I have thought surly nothing good can come out of this brokenness.  It has come to me at times of great hope that God is indeed restoring my past and can do something remarkable with my life.  It has come to me at times of anticipation, looking ahead to what God has in store for me in this season of life.  I am convinced that there are no coincidences when we are talking about God.  If a verse comes to you in various ways several times in succession, you better perk up and listen to what He is saying.  And trust me, sometimes what He is saying isn’t any fun to hear but if we remind ourselves that we have a God who loves us so much to get our attention, then in view of THAT fact, we owe it to Him to take heed of what He is saying.  Always remembering, He does EVERYTHING, out of divine love for us.

So with that thought in mind, let me tell you why I had the strong desire to write about this to you all today.    God has just brought me out of the most difficult season of my life yet.  And trust me, there have been a lot of difficult seasons in my 32 years but nothing compares to the magnitude of this particular season.  I have been steeped in bondage, in bitterness, in fear, in the very clutches of our adversary with the thought on several occasions to just succumb once and for all and to quit fighting the good fight we’ve been called to fight.  That is wasn't worth it.  I was so weary.  Have any of you been so weary that even the thought of one more battle made you buckle at the knees?  God's so amazing though because all the while I was struggling, God would whisper Romans 8:28 to me and send that sweet reminder that He was working even though I could not feel it or see it.   And so I sit here today a free woman with a new love for my Savior that is hard for me to express in words.  I have a calling on my life that I can’t even put into words because God hasn’t revealed it all to me.  I am thinking of entering seminary because I tell you I genuinely cannot get enough of His word.  And I have the strongest urge to tell every person I know the great and mighty works God has done in my life.  That God has a calling on my life, that He is and has brought good out of my bondage, bitterness, and brokenness and He can do that for you too!  The verses that follow say nothing can separate you from the love of God and nothing is bigger than God and if He, God Almighty, The Great I AM, is for you Misty, WHO can stand against you?  And through the power of His holy spirit and His word He has brought me forth out of this most difficult season, WHOLE AND HEALED AND A FREE WOMAN.  Do you believe He can do that for you?  I don’t just believe it, I am claiming that for your life too.  As humans we want to bring God down to our level so we can wrap our head around Him and so we feel like we have an understanding that is suitable for us but ladies, that is NOT what we NEED.  If you are facing a giant do you need someone your size to face that giant with you?  Or do you need someone BIGGER than the giant?  The Word says, His ways or not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts.  If you are going through something difficult and you feel like at any moment you will be overcome by this giant that is so much bigger than you, then you need a God, a Savior, that is bigger than the one you have right now.  You need to get some renewal going on in your brain that the Holy Spirit brings about when we don’t conform to what this world says but we delve into His word and we let Him remind us just how BIG he is!!!  Do you know in scripture His unfailing love is mentioned 35 times!?  Have you ever had someone tell you in 35 different ways at different times that they love you unfailingly??  And could you believe them?  Do you need something or someone that WON’T fail you?  When it feels like everything in your life is failing you?  I know sister, I have been there!

 So if God almighty who cannot lie, tells us He has loved us with an unfailing love, and that His ways and thoughts aren’t like our own and He is promising us, even though our frail vision can’t see it, that He is working all things together for the GOOD of those who love Him and that NOTHING can stand against us, do we need to despair?  Do we need to stay hid out in the bed with the covers over our head scared to face what today might hold?  No ma’am we do NOT.  We need to get up, stand on the mighty promises of God and go out and let HIM be glorified in our hardships, let HIS story be told through our TRIALS and let HIS SON shine through us so other’s might see Him and be saved.  Don’t let the enemy lie to you sister about what you are going through, that it’s for nothing, that God has forgotten you, that He doesn’t care.  Go to scripture and fight BACK with the very WORD breathed out of our Lord’s mouth.  Victory is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord!  AMEN!