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Hi friend! It’s been a while and I apologize. So much happened this summer it’s been hard to keep it all straight. I’ve been leaning into creating a way of helping others have an abundant garden and that took a lot of time and brain power. We also prayerfully decided to put Big Bro back in school this year as he had seemed to hit a plateau in his learning and that involved a series of evaluations and drs appointments and paperwork. Little Miss decided it was time to potty train on her terms, too, and she’s still not trained yet. It’s been quite the emotional roller coaster. Having a foot in the teen years and the other in the toddler years is crazy.
It took a lot of leaning into the Lord and I’m so grateful that He was there to lead me through. The habit of a guided daily prayer proved essential for keeping my focus where it should be. I have been following John Eldridge’s Daily Prayer from his books (Moving Mountains and Get Your Life Back) and it has been transformational. It was comforting to know I wasn’t in control and be able to rest in the fact that these kids are God’s children only on loan to me He’s ultimately directing their paths.
The topics of God’s sovereignty, trials and suffering in the life of a Christian, and consecration have been close at hand over the years and the things God taught me prepared me for this season. Sometimes its hard to know when God is at work and it was pretty neat to see His faithfulness throughout the summer.
I was reading in Exodus 1 recently and the concept that God was at work then despite the severe oppression jumped out at me. In verse 12 we read:
That is so encouraging, isn’t it? God blessed them because of the trial and the degree of the blessing was directly related to the severity of the oppression. God never let go of His people- that wasn’t the reason why life was so difficult for the Israelites. It’s easy to think that God has turned away from us when things get hard but that is the farthest thing from the truth. I believe God is moving and working even more greatly when the trials are the more difficult.
400 years after Jacob took his family down to Egypt, after the memory of all the good Joseph did for Egypt was forgotten, and the oppression was unbearable, God still had people who believed in Him. He was totally and fully in control despite the horrible things that were happening. He had preserved a remnant of believers with a strong faith. The Israelite people hadn’t merged with the Egyptian culture. They were still set apart, or consecrated. He prepared them for the miracle of deliverance they would experience that would bring Him glory.
It occurred to me how even in our own lives, even through the really hard circumstances, God is fully in control and is working behind the scenes. The hard things in life can help us know that God is working in our lives. He is preparing us, too, through the hard things that we must walk through. We will experience our own miracles that will bring Him glory even today.
Miracles are sometimes small. Not all miracles are visible to the world. As I walked through the summer, specifically working on building my gardening ecourse and figuring out what was best for Big Bro, I felt like each direction was a miracle. It’s not usual for my prayers to be answered immediately or even quickly but I’d ask for a solution or pray about a problem and I’d find the answer was provided. It took a few times before I realized what was going on but they were small miracles. And I got to give Him the glory on a Facebook group challenge and plus now I’m sharing my story here.
That’s our holy purpose, friends- trusting God’s sovereignty in our lives and giving Him the glory for it all. It’s so important to lean into Him in the hard things and hang on to our faith so that we can be in awe of Him and give Him the glory when the miracles happen.
I’d love to hear your story if you have experienced this, too. When you were able to give God the glory for how He multiplied through a trial. Leave me a comment below and let’s make this a place to give God the glory for the great things He has done!
