Let Him...

 I’ve been sick for a couple of weeks now and it’s been horrible! I hate being sick! And you know what? Nothing stopped just because I was sick. I still had to be wife and mommy. I still had to work. I still had to preach and write. Life kept going. I kept saying to the Lord, “Why?! What is happening? Why now?” And His answer tore my nerves up, though it shouldn’t have. He said to me, “Because it’s time. I’m teaching you how to say yes. I’m teaching you when to say no. I’m teaching you to adjust and be flexible when I shift you. I’m teaching you and shaping you into who I need you to be.” I realized when I heard that response yep…that is exactly what has been happening. And even though I have resisted at times and fought back with flesh, it is happening and I have to accept it.

Could it be that you are in a similar place? Could it be that all of the challenges and trials that you may be facing right now are God’s way of molding and shaping you into who He needs you to be? Let me clarify! I don’t mean He needs you, in the sense that He can’t do it without you. I mean that in order to fully walk into what He has for you, He wants your spirit man to be in a particular shape. It can’t be the weaker party in the flesh vs spirit equation. He wants you walking in power and victory. He wants your confidence in Him and what He has put inside of you to overwhelmingly answer any doubt that tries to question you. He wants you to accept what He is saying about you! Tough, right? I know! I want to be in the background and talk to small groups but God keeps pushing me and challenging me to step up and out. It’s the same with you.

Do you think He has allowed you to go through those hard experiences where you questioned your very purpose on this earth for nothing? Nope! He’s going to take that challenge and shape it into your testimony that will bless generation after generation. Do you think He has asked you to do big things with little money so that you could just go broke? Nope! He’s showing you that you can fully and completely depend on Him if you let go of the control. Do you think He has allowed you to lose people that you leaned on before so that you would be alone? Nope! He’s stretching you because where He is taking you will be filled with new people and you’re going to have to be bold enough to start new relationships.

I guess what I’m saying to you today is let God do what He’s doing in and through you. Let Him take you to new places and try new things. Let Him open doors that no man can close without trying to close it yourself. Let Him be God! It's super scary but it will work for your good because He said so and He's in charge.

Let me leave you with God’s words to Cyrus in Isaiah 45:4-7 (NLT). Take it in…

“And why have I called you for this work?
    Why did I call you by name when you did not know me?
It is for the sake of Jacob my servant,
    Israel my chosen one.
⁵ I am the Lord;
    there is no other God.
I have equipped you for battle,
    though you don’t even know me,
⁶ so all the world from east to west
    will know there is no other God.
I am the Lord, and there is no other.
⁷     I create the light and make the darkness.
I send good times and bad times.
    I, the Lord, am the one who does these things.

 Amen.