NEW GROUNDS // ON HOW YOUR WAY IS NOT THE BEST WAY
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I had the privilege of preaching at Dream Women (my church's women's ministry) yesterday morning. Sharing the Word of God is always an honour. I'm still boggled that He chooses me to speak His life, encouragement and Word into people's lives but I sure do love doing it. Over the years of speaking I have realized that it's not about me whatsoever. It's about HIM and what He chooses to communicate to His children.
Anyways, the word He gave me for Dream Women was out of John 11. It originated from an old blog post I wrote back in 2012.
Sometimes, things in life don't always go as we plan...and you know what, that's usually a good thing.
Here's the post from 2012...
"Just wanted to share something that God dropped on my heart this morning…I was reading the beginning of John 11. Jesus found out how Lazarus was ill and waited two days before departing to see him. I love the way the Message put it, ‘Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, but oddly, when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed on where he was for two more days.’ Ha, isn’t it funny how we sometimes look at God’s way as “odd”. Love it.
He told his disciples that Lazarus was asleep and he needed to wake him up. His disciples didn’t get it and…Then Jesus became explicit: “Lazarus died. And I am glad for your sakes that I wasn’t there. You’re about to be given new grounds for believing. Now let’s go to him.” John 11:14-15 MSG
YOU’RE ABOUT TO BE GIVEN NEW GROUNDS FOR BELIEVING jumped off the page right before my eyes. I sat there reading it over and over and over. This is a crazy week for me. We have our girls conference, ILLUMINATE starting on Friday. Many of us have been praying for it, for a long time! We know God is going to move in incredible ways in the girls’ lives. BUT sometimes things don’t always go the way planned…like last year and the flowers.. oh those dang flowers… let me remind you..
At the end of the conference last year we wanted to give the girls each a rose. We ordered the flowers online to save the costs. Well those stinking flowers got held up at the border and would not arrive in time. I found this out Saturday morning and wasslightly, heavily, freaking out. Little did I know, God had it all covered. And in it all he was GIVING ME NEW GROUND FOR BELIEVING… I received a phone call a few hours later from my pastor. A local ministry was donated 66 dozen roses, they didn’t need them so they called my pastor to see if our girls conference wanted them. Yes, you heard right.. 66 DOZEN ROSES. God turned our measly attempt of 100 roses to 792. In that crisis, seeing God go ABOVE & BEYOND most definitely GAVE ME NEW GROUND FOR BELIEVING!"
If Jesus had come as soon as he got word that Lazarus was ill and healed him from the sickness, we would have missed out on the incredible miracle (fyi He raised revived Lazarus from THE DEAD..yah...incredible!!).
Maybe there is something you've been praying about for awhile, or a circumstance or trial that you're facing and you've started to lose faith. I just want to encourage you to keep hoping, keep trusting, and keep waiting on Jesus. He's going to answer that prayer...maybe not the way you want Him to answer but in His way....which is so much greater and amazing than we could have dreamed of.
If God gave me those 100 roses all those years ago, the girls at Illuminate would have been blessed but God loved us too much to just do that...he gave 792 roses and in turn all of the girls (including me) experienced a great miracle and saw God's crazy, extravagant provision and love. His way was so much better than my way.
He loves us too much to let us just have our own way. Don't fret, don't be anxious. Remember He is at work and He is setting you up to give you NEW GROUNDS FOR BELIEVING.
xo,
s.s.♥︎.
