My husband told me that God spoke to him this past year. Richard is a man that I not only love, but that I trust. If he says that God is leading him, I trust that.
But I didn’t like where God was taking him.
It was in a direction that meant more sacrifice for us as a family.
It was in a direction that I hadn’t heard God saying we were to go.
So I resisted.
Am I the only one who has done that? I don’t think so. ♥
The topic has come up a few times since then and each time I have said the same thing, “I trust that God has spoken to you, but I need Him to speak to me as well, babe.” And then I offered my reasons for why this wouldn’t work.
This weekend my beautiful daughter came to visit. She and Luke (my 16-month old grandson) stayed the night and Melissa and I snuggled on the couch to have a long catch-up talk.
She had no idea of the conversation with me or her dad. She just started sharing things that God was showing her and Josh, and one comment dropped into my heart like a softball lobbed from right field.
She said, “I’m not sure how to pray because I don’t know how we can do what God is asking in the natural, so we are just signing up for whatever God desires for me and my family.”
After she left, Richard and I were talking and the conversation came up again. I could see he was tentative. This just hasn’t left his heart.
I took a deep breath.
“I haven’t heard from God yet,” I said, “but I know there have been times that God spoke to me first and you trusted that. And looking back, we both see God in it. So I am 100% open to whatever God has for us,” I said. “Whatever that looks like. Whenever God opens the door. I’m in.”
♦
As I listened to my daughter, the voice I trust so much gently asked me to drop the excuses and to simply open the door to whatever God has for me, and my family, because God is God.
The Holy Spirit sees what I cannot.
And God can do what I can’t do.
If I really am a follower of Christ, then I invite Him to step into every area of my life. I trust that He is in control and that God can do the impossible, and instead of offering up my excuses, I sign up for the adventure.
What about you? Is God speaking to your heart? Is He asking you to believe that He can do what seems impossible, or uncomfortable, and yet the end result would be to love someone who needs it, or to give where it is needed, or to go where the Word needs to be spoken?
It’s less about what we feel and more about partnering with Him to discover what’s out there that we can’t see yet. . . an adventure marked with our name in God’s handwriting.
I really needed this message today. My husband died 4/10/12, I turned 70 in Sept of this year. I am a young 70 and struggeling with what God has for me in my next Journey of this life. I am sold out to His will but got their with fear and trembling. I want to do His will but so many times it is not what I thought it would be for me at this time in my life. That is what happened when I married my husband in 2006. 5 1/2 months after marriage to him, he got Cancer and we lived with that, struggeling, hoping and praying for healing, it came to a point, but then went the other way. I took care of him and kept him at home with me. A very hard journey, was not what I expected or wanted at this time in my life but I learned so much through that journey. Now I am almost afraid to seek God’s will, not knowing if the next journey will be like this last one. Thanks for sharing and for the encouragement. I put it in my journal. I am on my 5th soon to be 6th journal since April. To Journal gives me peace. I Journal the scriptures etc that the Holy Spirit gives me in my quiet times. God BLess you.
Thank you for this! I needed to hear that I’m not the only one who struggles with trusting and letting God have the reigns! My husband and I are working hard so that I can be a stay at home mom and it’s a scary thing financially. I trust that its the right thing for our family and I have decided to let go and let God. This post was like the push I needed! Thank you!