Within the past few months I have been able to enjoy the fun and excitement of the sovereignty of God and wanted to share some stories.
My hope and prayer is that this encourages you and that the Lord would give us greater awareness of who He is and what He is doing in our lives and the world around us.
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I was walking around the track at Abilene Christian University having full intentions of stopping at a local coffee stop to sit and get into the Word. I had just finished Daniel recently and was expecting to start the book of Hosea. However, once approaching the coffee shop I decided to keep walking and hanging out with God outside. As I continued walking I noticed a landscape worker limping. I walked up to him and asked if his leg was hurting. He said “Yes my knee is in a lot of pain, what did you do for yours?”……. I had never met this man before so the only way he would have known I recently injured my knee was only through the divine knowledge from God… I responded “I do different exercises and try to strengthen the muscles around it, but prayer has honestly been the best thing for it, can I pray for you?” He replied , “yes, absolutely, I trust God will fully heal me.” Before I started praying I asked him his name and he said….. Hosea.
I did indeed get to read the story of Hosea, not in the Bible but the story God is creating my brother’s life to be.
GOD IS SO CREATIVE AND FUN!!
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At the end of November I was pursuing a job in Vail, Colorado with Young Life. After the door closed to that specific job I sat with the Lord and sought what I was suppose to do next. My natural instinct is to go and do and be proactive and take action. So my initial thought was “okay, that door closed so I must be called to stay in Abilene.” But learning from past mistakes of taking things into my own hands, and remembering that the last thing God told me to do was WAIT, I decided to not jump to conclusions. I knew that I wanted my own home and be a part of Young Life, but I didn’t want to take that step until I knew where God wanted me to be long-term/semi long-term because both of those require commitment. Therefore, I told the Lord, “if I am suppose to live in Abilene then I need you to send me someone to help my buy a house and someone to get me involved with Young Life. I don’t want to be apathetic but the last thing you told me to do was wait, so I’m going to wait until you say something else.”
A couple of days later, I was washing dishes at the local coffee shop I work at. I was telling someone how my heart is for relationship and discipleship specifically with high school and college students. A co-worker listening near by asked me, “Are you looking for another job?”, she continued, “I just had to step out of a job and I think you should look into it. I was the college director for Young Life. Have you heard of it?”
Like what….. the Lord literally sent me someone while I was washing dishes at a coffee shop and now I am the Young Life College Director…. but that’s not even the end.
The next day I was at home telling my family about this miraculous event and my aunt proceeds to say, “well whenever you start looking for a house, reach out to our realtor friend because she just texted us yesterday reminding us to keep her in mind if we hear of anyone looking for a house!”
YALL!! GOD IS SO GOOD!
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The first day I met with that friend/realtor she showed me (online) a blue house with a yellow door that had come on the market THAT DAY. It was super cute and out of my price range but worth at least going to look at. Well before I had a chance to go look at it, it was already under contract. A little bummed but hopeful that there would be others I liked, we kept moving forward. After going to look at several houses over the last 3 months and an offer falling through we found ourselves in a super cute home for sale by owner. As we stood and talked to him he started telling us about a few other houses they were planning to flip and one they had already remodeled and just finished some foundation work. He continued to explain to us that it had previously been under contract but because of the foundation issues the previous buyer backed out. He said, “It’s a blue house with a yellow door, so I don’t know if you’re into that kind of thing..” and as he continued talking hope welled up inside me at the thought of having a second chance at owning a blue house with a yellow door, similar to the very first one I wanted to look at. When my realtor looked it up, we found to our exciting surprise that IT WAS THE EXACT SAME HOUSE THAT I LOVED FROM DAY ONE! But that’s not all… As I was talking to the Lord 2 days prior, I was expressing to Him how I was overwhelmed and confused on what I should even want/look for in a home. I’ve been living out of a backpack for the past 2 years, how am I suppose to know what I want in a house? And the Lord told me, “If you will be patient, you will see my Glory.” Based on the scripture John 11:40 “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God.” And then the Lord brought this whole situation about!!! And all that to say, on Good Friday, I bought the blue house with the yellow door!
LIKE WHAT? COME ON JESUS!
I will be completely honest, this is the first time I have experienced the clear undeniable sovereignty of God. Not because He is just now starting to be sovereign, but because my awareness of His sovereignty has grown.
He always has been and always will be sovereign and as we invite Him into our daily lives He graciously pulls back the curtain on what He is doing.
God is always working and moving and as we become more aware of His presence in our lives we get to experience how fun and exciting following Jesus really is!
