“Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.’” John 14:23 (NIV)
Last time we were together, I was talking about the wonderful truths our family has learned and adopted into our lifestyle through The Blessed Life – both the book and the video sermon series. I also shared how each time I’ve either read the book or listened to the series, God has presented me (our family) with a choice and we have obeyed, because in our opinion, it was never really a choice. When we chose to live for Him, then we choose obedience, no matter what the cost.
This time I thought I was prepared. I was watching and listening each week for God to challenge me through a principle we were learning about, something I needed to tweak in our finances or our giving or something. However, this time around, that wasn’t how God wanted to get our attention. That wasn’t the lesson we needed to learn.
Instead, I received a disturbing email. While I won’t go into details about the contents, let’s just say my first reaction was worry … then panic. I showed it to my husband right away and told him, “Don’t worry, I have the facts I need. I think we’ll be okay.” However, that response didn’t set well with me. I decided instead of rushing ahead and doing (or saying) something I might regret, I would talk to God about it. I poured out my feelings, telling Him about the pros and cons of either fighting it or letting it go, and said I didn’t need to react now … I could wait until Monday, so would He please give me a clear direction of what He wanted me to do within two days? I was willing to do whatever He asked … I just wanted to know that I know that I know it was from Him.
I felt in my spirit God was giving me a choice and either answer I picked would be okay. I could either A) Fight this email, scramble around and what was lost would be recovered … or B) I could choose not to fight the email (or the person) and trust God to recover what was lost His way. While I wasn’t completely sure if it was wishful thinking or God, I thought He was giving me the choice to get exactly what was lost back with option A… or trust Him to do exceedingly more than I could ask or imagine with option B, possibly meaning what was recovered would be more on the level of a miracle than just baseline. Again, I wasn’t sure if that was what I heard, but in case it was, I decided to step all in, choose not to fight, and trust God for a miracle. Seriously, when given that option, who doesn’t want a miracle?
However, being married with children, what happens to me doesn’t just affect me but it affects my whole family. I knew I needed (and more importantly, wanted) to honor my husband as head of the household, thereby obeying God’s plan, so while that was the choice I thought God was offering, I needed to make sure we were in agreement together about which option to choose.
I’ve never said I have good timing when it comes to serious discussions. We were waiting for our daughter to finish her driver’s training class that Saturday night and I decided to bring it up in the middle of a department store at the mall. However, being married for almost 20 years, my husband accepts my lousy timing and agreed with me right in the middle of the clothing racks that if that was the choice I thought we should accept, He was in full agreement.
Come back next time for the continuation of what God did …