Obeying God can be weird.
This ought to be fun. It has been a little while since I've put out a blog and I've honestly really missed it! I think I might've started my last two blogs with that sentence but I'm not too sure, so I'm just going to go with it.
I don't even really know what I am going to write about - BUT my biggest fan reached out to me this week telling me he really missed my blogs and sent some encouragement to start back up. So what if my biggest fan is my brother? It still counts, right?
Life has been a little wild around here. We moved up to NH as I think everyone and their mother already knows. It's been amazing being around family and seeing my kids with their cousins. This weather has been a huge plus, too (except for the snow flurries we got today, what is that about?!) Along with life being just about perfect, it hasn't come without its major down times, too. Sam and I have learned A LOT these past 8 months of living in a basement. It's been a lot of character building and definitely testing the strength of our faith. Overall, we are extremely thankful because we've seen all the benefit it has brought us.
Nothing is set in stone but we are set to move into our own place on June 10th, taking offers from anyone who wants to help us move! wink wink. We put an offer on a house and it got accepted that same day even though there were higher offers (pretty cool story for another time). The two weeks before we put an offer on this house were awful. Not going to lie and because I love transparency, I was struggling pretty bad with questioning if we had done the right thing. It is amazing how when things don't go exactly our way we immediately think we made the wrong choice... how about God's way is so much better and higher and produces so much more good than we could ever imagine?!
During those two weeks prior and still going strong Sam and I both felt specifically to turn off all distractions. We cut out social media (although I will be posting this to Facebook), we stopped playing games, we started spending more time with God etc. One day, I was sitting down in the basement praying and asking God to speak something specific to me - I needed some clarity and encouragement and I can't even begin to express how quickly I heard "obey first, then trust, then I'll reveal myself"
I thought that was odd because in any normal relationship you go the exact opposite - you let someone reveal who they truly are, then you decide if you want to trust them or not, and then based on what you know, you'll listen and value their opinions & advice and are more apt to accepting their word because its based on a trust system. But the Lord showed me that He does it backwards and better - first we obey to show our love back to him, then we gain trust in Him because we see that His way was actually way better for us, and then He reveals Himself in all of it and we see His fingerprints all over our lives.
I started asking, Lord how do I obey you? And He gave me some pretty specific instructions that I did immediately. I quit complaining, I quit speaking negatively about myself and anyone else, I started speaking thankfulness and blessings over all my situations. I then realized, our whole move up here in the first place was in obedience to what we believed God spoke to us. Then all of these things we have endured have helped put our trust in Him. Now we've realized He is beyond faithful in all of the day to day worries and with taking care of our every need. Looking back on the past 8 months, we see God throughout all of it without question.
I feel like I just threw up on this page (which apparently is my life now that I'm pregnant again lol).. Not sure if any of it makes sense or if it has a good flow to it. I don't really care at this point though- I just needed to get it out and on paper so to speak. I challenge you today while you are spending time with the Lord - ask Him how you can obey Him. The first thing you hear or feel, do it. Even if its scary or embarrassing or hard. Its for your benefit- and every time we move in obedience to the Lord it sets our hearts free and expresses our love back to Him.
John 14:21
"Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them."
I don't even really know what I am going to write about - BUT my biggest fan reached out to me this week telling me he really missed my blogs and sent some encouragement to start back up. So what if my biggest fan is my brother? It still counts, right?
Life has been a little wild around here. We moved up to NH as I think everyone and their mother already knows. It's been amazing being around family and seeing my kids with their cousins. This weather has been a huge plus, too (except for the snow flurries we got today, what is that about?!) Along with life being just about perfect, it hasn't come without its major down times, too. Sam and I have learned A LOT these past 8 months of living in a basement. It's been a lot of character building and definitely testing the strength of our faith. Overall, we are extremely thankful because we've seen all the benefit it has brought us.
Nothing is set in stone but we are set to move into our own place on June 10th, taking offers from anyone who wants to help us move! wink wink. We put an offer on a house and it got accepted that same day even though there were higher offers (pretty cool story for another time). The two weeks before we put an offer on this house were awful. Not going to lie and because I love transparency, I was struggling pretty bad with questioning if we had done the right thing. It is amazing how when things don't go exactly our way we immediately think we made the wrong choice... how about God's way is so much better and higher and produces so much more good than we could ever imagine?!
During those two weeks prior and still going strong Sam and I both felt specifically to turn off all distractions. We cut out social media (although I will be posting this to Facebook), we stopped playing games, we started spending more time with God etc. One day, I was sitting down in the basement praying and asking God to speak something specific to me - I needed some clarity and encouragement and I can't even begin to express how quickly I heard "obey first, then trust, then I'll reveal myself"
I thought that was odd because in any normal relationship you go the exact opposite - you let someone reveal who they truly are, then you decide if you want to trust them or not, and then based on what you know, you'll listen and value their opinions & advice and are more apt to accepting their word because its based on a trust system. But the Lord showed me that He does it backwards and better - first we obey to show our love back to him, then we gain trust in Him because we see that His way was actually way better for us, and then He reveals Himself in all of it and we see His fingerprints all over our lives.
I started asking, Lord how do I obey you? And He gave me some pretty specific instructions that I did immediately. I quit complaining, I quit speaking negatively about myself and anyone else, I started speaking thankfulness and blessings over all my situations. I then realized, our whole move up here in the first place was in obedience to what we believed God spoke to us. Then all of these things we have endured have helped put our trust in Him. Now we've realized He is beyond faithful in all of the day to day worries and with taking care of our every need. Looking back on the past 8 months, we see God throughout all of it without question.
I feel like I just threw up on this page (which apparently is my life now that I'm pregnant again lol).. Not sure if any of it makes sense or if it has a good flow to it. I don't really care at this point though- I just needed to get it out and on paper so to speak. I challenge you today while you are spending time with the Lord - ask Him how you can obey Him. The first thing you hear or feel, do it. Even if its scary or embarrassing or hard. Its for your benefit- and every time we move in obedience to the Lord it sets our hearts free and expresses our love back to Him.
John 14:21
"Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them."
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