Thursday, June 2, 2011

“See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared." Exodus 23:20

Wow, this is a verse full of insight.
Yes, God has prepared the way for me.

I have read the book of Exodus a couple of times throughout my life, how did I miss the power of this verse? This verse should be all l need to have faith and to trust God with my life. In my heart I believe that God goes ahead of me and prepares the way, but I allow my head to tell me differently sometimes. I allow worry, anxiety and too much planning to get in the way of moving forward with what God wants me to do.

God has given me many opportunities to be a part of His plan but sometimes I miss out on the blessing because I worry too much about the details, what people will think, can I afford it, will I have the right words, will I have time, will I have the energy, do I want to open myself up to criticism, and asking myself, “what if I fail?” When I go through all of these doubts, time passes and then the opportunity is gone. Fortunately for me God never gives up and eventually gives me another opportunity. He has set up situations for me to be a part of so in the end His name will be glorified.

Throughout the years it’s my thinking that has had to be refined and in this refining process God has entrusted me with many meaningful experiences in which His name is the only name that could be glorified, with out Him I am nothing. Situations that are so obviously set up by God that sometimes I am just amused that I would have questioned Him to start with and that I would have the audacity to think that He wouldn’t give me the courage, the strength, the time, the money, or a positive mind set to just do what it is He has planned. Life with God is a process, it’s clear that I take one step forward and two, three or four steps backward but the remarkable thing is, God always gives me another chance. He is determined to show me that He is real, trustworthy, available, loving, kind, creative, powerful {the list of His goodness is endless} and He has invited me to have a small part in His creative plan to spread the Good news of His mercy & grace.

Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

God has it all set up, I just need to trust that He is going to give me what I need to follow through with His plan, why would God set up an opportunity for me, and expect me to do it on my own or give me just a portion of what I need to follow through with it, He just doesn’t work that way. When we hear that small still voice nudging us to do something good it’s God giving us an assignment, it may seem small or it may seem overwhelmingly hard, but no matter the size of the task God gives us what we need to follow it through ‘til the end.