Woah.
Thank YOU!
Just a few days ago, when I spent some time opening up about God’s goodness and this journey, I had no doubt that there would be even more exciting things to come. What I didn’t expect was all of the sweet souls who reached out in kind words, gifts, and prayers so quickly!
Before even leaving school that day coaches and teachers were asking how they could help, friends were sharing the post, and I had a long list of thank-you’s to get started on. It wasn’t until I got home and sat down that I realized: God knew all along – and who was I to even think he wouldn’t deliver in crazy awesome ways?
Ephesians 3:20-21.
“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations. Forever and ever, Amen.”
God’s ability to show His love is genuinely greater than we can comprehend. How crazy is it that we get to serve a God who adopts us, changing us from sinners who were once dead to the world to redeemed, fully-alive children of the King?!
We are products of grace, love, and mercy. And not only are we saved, but we get to be a part of sharing this story with the world so that at the last day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that He (our God!) is Lord of All.
Even in the midst of my worried, not-always-shiny-and-clean, purely exhausted days – He is here with good news. And I will be the first to admit that sometimes (like today) I had to quite literally be still to remind myself the depth of that truth.
We serve a God of abundance. We serve a God who exceeds our wildest dreams.
Yet inevitably, when the excitement of this moment wears off and the stress kicks in, we can be tempted to think “Not right now. This is just part of the everyday. Once I finish A, B, and C; then I’ll get back to the grateful heart ‘yay God’ thing.”
But what I’m learning sllllooowwlllyyyy – but so surely – is that walking with God means walking with him in these times too. We serve a God who seeks close friendship; the kind that shares the good and bad. He came that we may live life to the fullest. So it may look like “God, I need your strength to show me how *insert struggle of the day* can be used worship you.” It’s not always the invincible positive attitude. It’s about real humility seeking real hope.
So as I write again today to say Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for everything you have done to allow any of this to be possible – I also write to emphasize to the hearts that need it: abundantly more doesn’t always look like this. Getting to be the blessed receiver of so much generosity today had me feeling pretty excited. Yet in that joy, God put on my heart a prayer so close to my soul.
There are lies so near to us and sometimes inside of us that tell us we are simply less. And in every moment – happy or sad, mountain or valley, loved or lonely – we have to face this world with the Truth. Again and again, we must speak and act in faith. He is able to do abundantly more than all we can ask or imagine. God is good all the time, even when we struggle to see it. All the time God is good.
