Jonah is still speaking God's Words

Wow. God has been working on me and I feel the need to share it with you all. As you know, we are moving to Abilene, TX in August. This was not 'the' plan, but God was evidently speaking and calling us there.

Our Ladies' Bible Class started Priscilla Shirer's study on Jonah. Going into the study I was naive to what God had in store for me. Boy oh boy... little did I know God was going to continue to speak to me through Mr. Jonah and Mrs. Shirer.

Mrs. Shirer begins with an equation:
Insignificant Person + Insignificant Task = Interruption
Significant Person + Significant Task = Divine Intervention

Friends, I have had a Divine Intervention or should I correct myself and say I am IN a Divine Intervention.

I can proudly say when I heard God's voice I said with confidence and I quote, "Well, Tim, I guess we are moving to Abilene." I knew God's calling was going to happen. Yes, I knew a lot had to happen before we moved, but I knew we would move. I shamefully say now I have had many many times of doubt and disbelief.

Today's lesson Mrs. Shirer stated: The interrupted life is the challenging life. It will push you to the limits/tax you. It will make you depend on God more radically.

The other day I called a friend of mine, Anna Caulley. She too has lived through a very similar Divine Intervention, with a complete life change and seeing her husband through Seminary. I called her, because I needed her to say our next four years will not be the worst years of our life. You see I have been dreading our move. I have been picturing our life in Abilene full of:

P,B and J and tuna sandwiches
A nasty moldy apartment with the carpet frayed at the edges.
Me trying to provide for our family as I have 3 children running around in diapers and dirty faces.

I have been picturing the worst and I needed Anna to tell me I was wrong.

I realize now I was calling the wrong person. I was looking to a person and not to our God for comforting words. Psalms 37:4 says, "Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart's desires." Always before I read this passage as if you pray enough God will give you the riches you desire. No, as Mrs. Shirer corrected my thinking, as we delight in the Lord our desires will become His desires. Therefore, I am not going to be thinking in my negative selfish ways anymore. I will no longer be concerned with the little things of what our apartment looks like or what food I put on the table. My thoughts will be those of our Lords. Psalms 119:36-37 also confirms this thinking, "Give me an eagerness for your decrees; do not inflict me with love for money! Turn my eyes from worthless things, and give me life through your word." 


I also realized today that God does not call you and leave you hanging. No, God equips you to fulfill his will for you and the life he has called you to live. Just yesterday, I emailed our realtor because for the last 2 weeks we have had a 'dry-spell'. No one has called about our house nor shown interest. I was feeling antsy. I wanted to know if there was something I could do differently (put out more flowers, paint the front door, etc.) Today I realized that was foolish. I was thinking I could do something to sell this house! I realized today only GOD can do something to sell this house.

I know that God will equip me to handle this challenging life he has called me to. He will sell our house and he will provide us with income. I am like most women and I love to feel secure. I want to know when my husband is going to get paid and how much and that the money will continue to come into our bank. I want this security. Mrs. Shirer says, "Oftentimes the greatest hindrance of a new move of God in your life is the last move of God." She means we are so often settled into the place God put us that we don't want to move again. We are sitting cozy in our steady jobs, new house, two cars and food on the table that we don't want to be INTERRUPTED. I did not want to be interrupted. Yes, there is excitement in the idea of picking up and moving across the country to the unknown, but friends, this is not easy. This is challenging.

I realize that God is equipping me with what I need. Right now what I need is a faithful heart, a trusting heart. Today as I drove home from Ladies' Bible Class Lewis fell into a peaceful sleep. He looked so cute and comfy as I drove along. I thought to myself... Why can't I fall into a peaceful sleep with God and trust him to get me there safely. Why can't I rest in his presence and know he will get me to our destination.

Sometimes God calls us to stick out like a sore thumb. Actually, I should rephrase that and say He calls ALL CHRISTIANS TO STICK OUT LIKE A SORE THUMB. So often we want to live the cookie-cutter Christian life. We want to stay in the house we bought as newlyweds, keep our children in the 'good' school, and go to church 3 times a week. (I am speaking of myself!) As Tim sweetly reminds me, God does not call us to 'fit in'. God does not call us to look like everyone else. We are aliens of this world. We should not want the desires of earthly things, but of Heavenly things. We should have the desires of God written on our hearts.

Today Mrs. Shirer talked about how Jonah fled from God. He didn't just flee by staying where he was, no, he bought a ticket to a boat and tried to sail 2000 miles away. He did not want the challenging life. I too flee. No, I don't physically flee, but I flee mentally. At times I don't want to pray and hear God's convections, because I know it will be hard and difficult. But I need to realize it's only hard and difficult by the worldly standards. It is not difficult when I look through God's eyes and His standards.

I end this knowing I rambled and rambled, but that is what blogs are for right? I hope you can all encourage us and pray for us to have God's desires written on our hearts and trust Him enough to fall into a peaceful state in his presence.