“God will never leave you empty. He will replace everything you lost. If He asks you to put something down, it’s because He wants you to pick up something greater.” Unknown Author
Right after Christmas my best friend called to let me know that she and her family were accepting a four day old baby girl from the foster care system. Their intention had been to adopt but when this opportunity to foster was presented to her and her husband they knew it was what God wanted them to do. Over the last four months, we have all grown to adore this little doll. The bottom line is my friend and her family have fallen in love with this baby girl and cherish her as their own. Watching this story unfold has been a roller coaster of events. The birth mother is missing in action, and they have been waiting on pins and needles to see if they get to permanently keep this little girl who has already become a part of their hearts.
While praying for this situation the other day I felt clearly the Holy Spirit speak into my heart that we are to truly trust in Him. My mind began to play out the different scenarios as to what this could look like. Was God letting me know that we are to simply trust that this little girl will not be taken from the only family she knows and is perfectly happy and thriving with. Then the next thought that came pierced my heart. What if what seems to be obvious, logical, and the right thing to happen doesn’t happen? Jesus said do you really trust me and have you counted the cost that comes with following me? Luke 14:25-34.
As I pondered what He spoke to me, I had a revelation that trusting Him means we do not know the bigger picture. “ For now we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully as, I am fully known.” 1 Cor. 13:12. Throughout many times in our lives things sometimes just don’t seem to make since or they don’t end the way we think they should. Maybe we lose loved ones, jobs, or money, or maybe we were misunderstood, or sent away from the only life we know. Sometimes we lose things that are simply unbearable to comprehend. Maybe we have to lay down something we hold a little too tight. This is when we begin to question if we really know God or question if we really heard Him right. Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not My ways.” This is the Lord’s declaration. “For as heaven is higher than earth, so My ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” These verses reveal that God sees how all things work and sees what we can’t. We are not always given the details to the things that God calls us too. He asks for us to walk by faith and trust that He has it covered. God’s word is a lamp for our feet and a light on our paths. Psalm 119:105. I don’t know about you, but my feet take small steps as I walk, not big strides. I cannot take one step from my home and expect to step foot in the grocery store. It would take many steps to get to my destination. But each step gets me there. As I walk, I know the path that I’m on is leading me to the grocery store. It would be silly, if because I couldn’t see the store, that I stopped in the middle of the path and gave up hope to ever reaching my destination. Our walk with God is often like this. We get buried in the circumstances of our life and forget where we are going. In the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan, he writes, “ I am thankful for the unknowns in that I don’t have control, because it makes me run to God. If life were stable I would never need God’s help.” This is something to think about. How often do we respond to life with this kind of attitude? This kind of attitude can only come from the Holy Spirit living and working inside of us.
I love to read the story of Joseph when things do not seem to make sense in my life. Joseph was given a big dream from God. Joseph, however, did not exactly wake up the next day in circumstances anyone would want to be in. Don’t you think that he, like us, probably struggled with the why’s and what if’s? Why did God say my family would bow down to me but my brothers got away with selling me into slavery? Why am I in prison when I really did nothing wrong and was falsely accused? What if I had never been taken from my Father? But in the end came the dream. God’s perfect will shining through. I think this happens more often than not. Like Joseph, I think we are all given big dreams by God only to be thrown off track when it doesn’t come in the perfect package we think it should. It is in these circumstances, that to us look nothing like the dream, that we begin to let the enemy come in to steal, kill, and destroy. This tears away our trust if we are not careful. We must realize that it is here, in these circumstances that do not always seem to make sense to us, that we are actually entering the training ground to accomplish His will. God cares about our character, persistence, faithfulness, perseverance, obedience and endurance. He cares if we are trusting in Him. During a sermon Pastor Ross said, “It’s not how we start but how we finish that matters!”
Everything in heaven and on earth is from God. He knows all things. We have to settle deep down inside of us that He really does see and know the bigger picture. We have to be willing to lose who we are and what we have for His purposes. We have to settle that, although Satan will try to destroy God’s plans for each of us, God is the victor. God knows our hearts. God knows that what we go through will bring Him glory and make us more like Him. He sees the bigger picture. He is always at work. “ We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28.
As for this sweet baby girl, we still do not know the outcome, but God does. I know that God hears our prayers and is working according to His will in her life, as well as in the life of my best friend and her family. In the end, we may not fully understand the how and why of how it all turns out, but God does and only asks us to trust in Him. We are all His children and He has a plan and a purpose for each of us and we can trust in that.
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Heather Bradley’s current interests include wholeheartedly loving her ONEchapel family, working alongside her husband of 17 years at their insurance agency, and keeping up with God’s biggest blessings of 3 precious children! Heather heads up the Women’s Outreach Efforts. Contact her by phone (512-217-4625) or
I am now a new creation in Christ, the old me is gone, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Lauren Stoenescu has been happily married for 22 years. In the final stages of raising three pretty wonderful adults, she loves: Jesus, life, laughter, chocolate, coffee, and family – which of course includes her amazing ONEchapel family. Lauren’s personal motto is: Life Is Rough, Wear a Helmet. “Put on salvation as your helmet…” Ephesians 6:17 NLT
This neighbor, herself a single mother, came over regularly and read the Bible to me, and encouraged me to come visit her church, and she was relentless. I finally gave in and visited, and heard truth for the first time – not just the lofty, from the pulpit “Jesus saves” spiel, but real, honest to goodness, “How do I live my life in relationship with God?” truth. Relationship? With God? And I was hooked.
The Lord has given Tommie a passion for finding the “lost” and discarded things in life and giving them a new purpose. She lives her life about 95% non-retail, and loves teaching others how to live this way. Tommie enjoys spending time with her 2 teenagers and her ONEchapel family. She leads the connect group The Art of Thrift Store Shopping.
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