What to read this week:
- Chapter 3 of God is Able
Straight off the bat this week, it's confession time... I don't believe in being someone I am not and I think the only way any of this works is if we are all being real!! So here is my "real" this week...
The last couple of weeks have been tough for me. I have felt disconnected and I have not been looking near enough at Jesus! I have been focused way too much on the situations I have been dealing with and not nearly enough on the Lord. (Yes, I know... even though we have been talking about that very thing!!)
I have put off working on this Bible study until the very last minute because I just haven't felt like I had any knowledge or wisdom to share. I have been pretty empty...
So, here I am, at 3:30 on Sunday afternoon, still trying to come up with something to post for you amazing ladies this week. My goal is to have this done by Saturdays so that when I am at church on Sunday I can use the WiFi and just get it posted and shared in a matter of minutes. Instead, I am sitting here, still thinking... still praying... feeling pretty inadequate for this task.
You know how distracted you get when you aren't sure about the thing you are working on?? Yeah, well at least I get easily distracted... So I picked up my phone, and checked my Timehop! I know, I know... not much Jesus in that!! If you don't know what Timehop is, it is an app that gathers your social media posts for the same date over the past few years. So you see each day what you posted on Facebook, Twitter, etc... on this date last year, two years ago, three years ago, etc...
Here was my Timehop for today:
I don't generally remember details, especially from several years back, but I know exactly why and when I wrote this Facebook post. I had traveled with Angelia to Conway for a Section 15 Women's Rally. The night of the rally was really one of the greatest nights of my life. It was a challenging and hard night, because me and God got real about some things that were going on in my life, but it was the beginning of me trusting God to take care of the mess that I was living, a mess that I didn't even know HOW messy it was on that night... (And it was also the beginning of a beautiful friendship, but I won't get all mushy about that today!!) :)
Angelia preached that night about seasons of life. It was a tough message to hear because of where I was, but it was also tough because it was only three months after the wreck for her. She didn't really talk about that until it got closer to the end of the service, but I knew... I cried almost the entire service. Some moments because I was really angry at my situation. I was angry with God and thought that He had brought me to that service to convince me that my life was about to drastically change in a way that I wasn't ready for. I was angry that He wasn't stepping in and fixing my situation.
But in the middle of all of this anger and hurt... I was watching Angelia talk about how good God is. I was listening to her say that we all go through seasons in life. Some are bright and cheery, those spring and summer moments... while some are dark and dreary and there are no signs of life. All the leaves have fallen off our trees and everything seems dead like the trees in the winter. But underneath it all, down deep in the roots, there is still life there... it is just waiting for the season to change so it can come back to the surface.
In my anger and hurt (toward God at the moment) I cried for me, but I also cried for her. I thought, "God, how can this woman (who I didn't know very well yet at that time) stand up in front of all of these women, three months after loosing her son and mother in law in a car accident, and say, it's just a season, the dark and dreary is just a season and some day it is going to end... How can she sit here and say that we were created for change and it is all a part of life. It just didn't make sense to me. I knew that if I had to walk in her shoes, I wouldn't be anywhere close to being able to say those things and even if the words came out of my mouth it would be with nowhere near the same amount of grace that she had.
Well, I didn't know her very well then, but I do now. The reason that she could say that, is because she knew deep down, without a shadow of a doubt, that even though her life had drastically changed, her God had NOT!!
Our, frail, human life goes through constant changes... but our God NEVER changes. His ability to do the impossible in our lives today is no different from His ability to part the red sea for the Israelites. His ability to go above and beyond on our behalf, is no different from His ability to heal the people that He did through Jesus all throughout the new testament.
That night in Conway, my life changed. Not because my circumstances changed, but because God met me where I was at... in the middle of my hurt, in the middle of my anger... in the middle of my questions about what tomorrow was gonna be like for me and my family. He met me there and He reassured me that no matter what my life threw at me, He was never going to leave me. He was always going to be there for me to provide, comfort, protect, and love me. Whether any other person or thing in my life stayed consistent, He was always going to be consistent. I was never going to have to wonder if God was there. Even when I didn't feel like He was, I could rest assured, that He was there, that He cared about me and my life, and that He was for me!
For me, that season of life that I was in three years ago, I want to say has changed... but some days I feel like my life is full of Arkansas seasons... you know, where there isn't a definite end, because the weather warms up for a few days and then goes right back down into the 30's!! God did not fix all my problems, no matter how many times I cried and begged!! 3 years later, God is still working in my season... But I know that He is doing, in His time, everything that He chooses to do in my life. My season is far warmer and much brighter than it was that night three years ago... and it is only by the grace of God.
Through it all... He never changed...
Discussion Starters:
- What part of this chapter in the book jumped off the page at you this week?
- Share some of your favorite stories from the Word of God where He showed up for His people!! Share your thoughts on some of the verses or stories that Priscilla shared in this chapter.
- Is there a time in your life where you have had to lean on the truth that God was still God and He was still working and moving on your behalf, even if you couldn't see Him in your circumstances... even if He chose not to answer your prayers the way you had hoped?
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