My house is filled with boxes. The pictures have been taken off the wall. My garage is full, ready for the U-Haul to be loaded on Saturday.
We have left a church family that we love, but are finding a new one. The services are different. The way they do church together is different from what we have known, but different is good! It’s causing us to stretch our wings and see what God has in store for us to learn.
My sabbatical was so needed. Thank you for your patience as I finished up a new book. I’ll tell you more about it later, but there was new beginnings in that project, too.
Half way through the book, I sensed God asking me to lay it down.
Do you know how it is when you’re at a pace and suddenly the brakes are put on, and you skid to a halt? That was me. The Lord asked me to take a step back and simply be alone with Him for a bit.
In a little prayer room in Arkansas I rediscovered Jesus all over again.
He asked me to live with open hands.
With my book.
With my ministry.
With the radio show.
With finances.
With direction.
Which helped me write a different kind of book. Still the same title. Still the same goal. But with so much more depth.
It also helped me to view this new beginning with no agenda. No set plan. I simply want to discover what God wants. Even if He asks me to lay something old down to begin something new.
I’m grateful that you are praying with us we move into our new house and city.
I’ll share some pics, and invite you in to bless the house with me. Our prayer is that it will be a place where people come to talk about Jesus and grow in their faith.
Sabbatical is over! I’ll be posting three times a week, and I can’t wait to reconnect with you again.
Are there any new beginnings in your life?
I sense something is coming. I’m trying to approach with open hands and an open trusting heart….fear sometimes envelopes me. But then I remember that Jesus loves me and has my best interests at heart. So I know that no matter if it is a trial or a blessing, I will be okay and in the end it will be for my good. I pray that I can hold on….to the promises!
Hey Lisa, what a statement of faith. Lord, cover Lisa with your love and with strength. Hold her tight. Pour into her and out of her over all those she encounters. In Jesus’ name, let fear be gone and anticipation take its place. In your powerful, mighty name!
I can SO empathize with you on this…my family & I recently sold our house & were ready to move away from our hometown to start a new chapter for our lives. God had other plans. We are still in the same town, but things are so different now. We are temporarily staying at a house my parents own while it is on the market. Plus I am 30 weeks pregnant! I am learning to live with open hands about our living situation, our finances, my family, everything! It’s so different from what I’m used to because I’m usually such a planner. God is taking me a journey of total reliance on Him & it’s definitely been a ride!
We have been in that same limbo (minus the pregnancy) for nearly three years. Hang tight, girl! New beginnings aren’t always instant beginnings, and they are part of the journey. God is still God in the waiting times. Love that you are totally relying on Him.
Please pray for Tiffany as she and her family need to sell their home in Wisconsin to go do ministry in Hawaii. It is a whole new beginning for them and they are so excited, but this one obstacle stands in the way.
My life today is something I never dreamed would happen, but I am learning ministry is not about a place, but about being willing to be used by God.
Glad to have you back! Can’t wait for the book!
I am stepping out in faith and trusting that God is directing my new career path. Thanks for reminding me to live with open hands! That will really help me remember to listen, trust and obey! I know my success rests with God and relies on my open hands.
Yay for a new career path? What is it?
Suzie,
Just when I feeling overwhelmed you send a message I need to hear. I need to make a new beginning.
My son makes very poor choices in all areas of his life and is now in the process of his 3rd divorce. He lies about anything and everything and he does not seem to be able to distinguish between what is true and what is a lie. Lying has cost him dearly throughout his lifetime but he does not seem to be able to understand how his lies have separated him from relationships with his family and friends, or what role lying played in being terminated from places of employment. He portrays to others untruths about himself for whatever meets the need and purpose of the moment.
Wife No. 3 is addicted to narcotic pain prescriptions.
Neither, he or his wife possess the ability to manage their finances and as result they have incurred overwhelming debts, living far above and beyond their financial means. Their marriage has collapsed due to the overwhelming debts, lies and drug abuse. They have spent their entire marriage running from debt collectors, saying whatever was necessary to prevent foreclosures, repossession of automobiles, etc.
During this 12 year marriage my husband and I rarely got to see or visit with our 2 grandchildren who are now 13 & 8 so they do not know us nor do we know them.
He has been living with us now for the past year due to his financial woes. He has despised living with his parents and to hear him tell it, he has made where a lives and who he lives with his main topic of discussion with anybody and everybody who will listen. Whatever advice these folks have given him have absolutely no idea of the tremendous amount of debt that he owes or how his father and I have struggled to help him out financially.
Last week he left in anger and has closed off all communications with us other than some very demanding and curt e-mails. He refuses to let us know where he is living or with who. This has been his pattern every time that he takes up with a new woman (who he then marries). He completely changes his attitude toward his father and I and he shuts us completely out of his life as he takes up with his new companion. His father and I have never been introduced to his “fiancé” or invited to any one of his 3 prior marriage ceremonies. Once he is in these relationships with these women the only time that his father and I hear from him is when he is in financial trouble or in the case of this 3rd marriage in jail for assault. His father and I told him last week that this was absolutely the end of our being able to help him financially. We asked him to repay us and that we will not continue to finance his lifestyle or tolerate his lies. This is what is weighing on my heart today. This is what is weighing on my husband’s heart also. Please pray for new beginnings in our lives.
I will be praying for you and your son. What heartbreak you must be experiencing. I hope you will find some comfort in knowing that God is always with you, and He is in control. We don’t always understand why things are as they are, but I trust you will continue to have faith in Him and let him lead.
Marilyn, Let’s go to the heart of this, okay? You and I are powerless to change another person. I hear your heart. I’m a mom and a grandma, and I get it. But who is God in the midst of this. What are other things He desires to pour into you as you let go of what you cannot change, give up energy in areas of your thought life and heart that can be filled with the other miracles all around you. How can He bless you as you offer up your son to Him, and live in faith and obedience and joy with God, as God works on the heart of your son in ways that we (as mommas) might not be able to do. A new beginning and open hands just might be saying “it is what it is” but also “You are who You are” and so I’m giving this to you, because all my efforts aren’t big enough.
Hi, I’m not sure what to say to new beginnings. I’ve tried to do new beginnings so many different times and never goes the way I want it to go. I guess because I’m trying to do this myself instead of listening and obeying God. I just want to say good luck with your new home and i’m sure your new church family will grow to love ya’ll and vise versa.
This new beginning I’m talking about has been almost three years in the waiting time, and in the frustrating moments, and in waiting some more. It’s not been about the way I want to go, and I totally understand why that matters, but in knowing that God spoke it into our hearts and staying the course. Marcy, God’s unchangeable, and His love for you doesn’t change either. Hang tight. Go intentionally deep with Him so that He is the one thing that is unchangeable as you go into the new beginnings. I’m so thankful for your honesty, and so thankful that you desire to listen to God. What courage!
I’m right there with you on new beginnings. I have a new daughter in law, new apt, new agenda. Five weeks ago i had no idea where the kids and i were going to live, where they were going to go to school, or how to be a mother in law. But I go about day to day trying to stay open to hearing and obeying. My new agenda requires me to drive and be flexible for my kids schedule that is all over the time table. My funds are extremely limited now but i cling to the promise that God has a reason for this too.
Lord, thank you for Roxanne. You walk with us in every season. Some are harder than others, but you remain consistent. Help Roxanne with the daily needs of food and shelter. Pour on top of that surprising and unexpected joy. Thank you that she is flexible and ready for whatever comes. But also that she is not alone in this. You are with her. In Jesus’ name. Amen.