Good

Our society has so many varying definitions for this word. It is funny though that the majority of the definitions we have for this word revolve around our benefit or our pleasure! I looked this word up on dictonary.com and there were over 40 basic definitions of this word! Holy Cow! My favorite was this one "free of distress or pain; comfortable." This made me laugh. I think back on good things in my life and they were not always comfortable! It was a good thing that my parents and I moved to Las Vegas, but it was far from comfy or free of distress! It was not what I would have considered a good thing if I had not understood that God had a plan for my family and me!

Sometimes it seems as though we expect God to do "good" things and only "good" things in our lives. the problem is that God's view of "good" and our view of "good" are two very different things! God views those things that grow us in our relationship with Him as "good." These things could be trials, difficulties, being shown grace, etc. Sometimes things that our flesh considers "good" but also sometimes things that our flesh considers "bad." God uses these things in our lives to grow us into the people He desires for us to be! He doesn't use these things to accomplish what we feel is "good." He uses these things to bring about things that He knows are "good." Our God knows "good!" Think back to creation! Each time He created something He was the one who decided whether or not it was "good." Not Adam, Not Eve, Not the animals! God!

Lord,
Help me to always remember that Your thoughts are not my thoughts, and your ways are not my ways! As high as the heavens is how far above my thoughts Your thoughts are! (Isaiah 55:8) I know that you have a plan for me! (Jeremiah 29:11) Help me to consider the trials I encounter while serving You as joys! (James 1:3) Knowing that these trials mold me into who You desire for me to be! Search my heart oh God! Help me to remember that You are GOOD! That you use everything in my life for good - not my definition of "good", but Your GOOD! Amen.

Faithful

I don't really know what to write at this point in time, but I just feel like writing. The last few months have been incredible! I cannot even begin to describe how amazing God has been to Zeke and me in providing for al that we have needed! And just in His perfect timing too! I feel like we are at that point again where God is taking us a little further out into the wilderness and looking at us with that look that says "I have so much waiting for you! You've trusted me this far, will you trust Me further?" And part of me wants to run like the wind in the other direction, but deeper down within me I know that He is so much more than trustworthy! How could I not go further? What would I miss if I ran the other way?

Sometimes it is so hard to trust God and follow Him, even when He has been absolutely faithful for so long and through so much in our lives! We need to be daily encouraged to surrender everything to Him.

Sitting here I am thinking about all that the next few weeks hold for my family! I told Zeke tonight I have never run headlong into so many things haveing absolutely no idea how God is going to provide! We know He has us exactly where He wants us! That has been confirmed in numerous ways! However, we are in a position where we are having to completely trust that God is going to provide for us to be where He called us!

I know that My Father in Heaven owns the cattle on a thousand hills! He clothes the lillies and takes perfect care of the sparrows and I am of much more value to Him than either of those! I know He will provide, but I need to be still!

"The Lord will fight for you; you must be quiet."

Exodus 14:14

I know that God has an amazing plan and I simply need to trust Him and follow where He leads me!

"'For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

and your ways are not My ways.'

This is the Lord's declaration.

'For as heaven is higher than earth,

so My ways are higher than your ways

and My thoughts than your thoughts.'"

Isaiah 55:8

"'For I know the plans I have for you'

this is the Lord's declaration

'plans for your welfare, not for disaster,

to give you a future and a hope.'"

Jeremiah 29:11

When did we stop expecting great things from a powerful God? When did we buy into the lie that God moved in amazingly powerful ways during Old Testament times, but He simply doesn’t move like that anymore? Do we even realize that this is what we believe? Because it is definitely how we live most of the time.


I am more convinced than ever that my generation sits on the verge of a mighty work of God. Something that we can feel moving within us, burning in our bones, but we do not know the time when this mighty work of a mighty God will manifest itself to the world.

As I write this let me just explain my surroundings. I am sitting on the back porch of the house of very dear family friends. They have a small farm here in Shelbyville and have gone out of town to visit family, so Zeke and I are house sitting. The backporch faces west and it is that time of the day, sunset! Today was a pretty hot day, I have the sunburn to prove it, but right now as the sun is slowly going down, the temperature is cool and the crickets are making their presence known. There are horses to my right and my left. Only four, two on each side. Simply being what God created them to be, praising a righteous and Holy God by grazing in the pasture! But the most incredible part of my surroundings id the breeze. A cool breeze. A breeze that comes strong enough to chill but then lets up at the perfect time. A perfect picture to me of the mighty work God is doing in the lives of His people right now!

I am reading the book “The Fear Killer Generation,” by Kevin Shrum (A pastor who Zeke led with @ Super Summer in Clarksville, TN) and John Pisciotta. I feel like every conversation and thought about God’s work that I have had within the last few months is being relived through the first few chapters of this book. I really and truly do believe that we are on the edge of something great from God, not that what we already have in Him is not enough, it is far more than enough! But I believe God has even more waiting for us! I really believe that we are living in some of the greatest days to be alive and a part of the kingdom of God!

Of course the world is not perfect. I am not claiming that. But for a second, look far beyond the junk and mess of this world. (Sometimes we allow ourselves to focus on the things that are wrong with the world and forget that our God is greater! He is mightier! He is bigger and stronger!) Focus on the truth of who God is! If that means you need to read through a Psalm that declares the Glory of our Great God before you finish reading this, then do it! Maybe Psalm 105, or Psalm 118.

As I was reading this book, The Fear Killer Generation,” last night, I was introduced to the greatest analogy for this mighty work of God. The author said that this work is like a huge wave, a tsunami wave. This is not a wave that you see coming from a long way off and have time to prepare for its arrival. This wave starts underwater as the result of an underwater earthquake. You cannot see it coming. There is not time to prepare for its arrival. It strikes with strength and power and as a complete surprise!