Love, Tuesday... Made Aware
I hate to say this, but I would NEVER recommend building a custom home from scratch, like never ever. I know that sounds harsh and maybe it is… it’s just that I am now “made aware” of what it takes to do something this big, and it’s a lot!
But… something I will ALWAYS encourage you to do is follow Gods leading, whatever that might be.
The last three years of this process have come with some of the most broken, stressful and hard moments of my entire life. I’ve told many people through this journey “don’t build a house” and I’ve meant every word of it. It’s hard. Really, really hard… on you physically, emotionally and even spiritually. It’s hard on marriages. (“Don’t try this at home,” especially if you’re not in a good place in your marriage... I guess some people think it might help, but I can’t see how this would help and statistics are NOT in your favor). Now I want to be clear that my stress levels are fine now, my marriage withstood the pounding and I’ve come through this with only minor health issues (a bad wrist and ankle from all the moving, packing and unpacking). But I’ve been told we are the “lucky ones” and that it really does come at a cost that is more than just financial.
But yesterday as I was driving to the dentist, and after reading in Romans 1 and “New Morning Mercies,” the Lord gently reminded me of something:
Who am I (Laura McCollough) to tell you what you should and shouldn’t do?! Who am I to stand in the way of what God is calling you to do? Maybe you ARE supposed to build that house, or plant that church or start that business! I know my own experience has been HARD, but hard isn’t all that bad, especially when God is calling you to do something.
And guess what?
God is going to give you enough grace and strength to get you through it!
See God has promised every single believer His grace is not only sufficient for forgiveness of sins and eternal life… but it is also enough grace for what He is calling you to do NOw.
“But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” 2 Corinthians 12:9
If you have some time after you read this, I would encourage you to read New Morning Mercies by Paul David Tripp from July 6th. Paul has a way with words that I will never attain, and his devotional on July 6th was spirit filled for “just a time as this”…
Friends, I know life is hard and we are living in strange times right now. It messes with us…. I totally get that. But now is not the time to forget God’s promises. Now is not the time to sit back and let the craziness of 2020 get in the way or cause us to forget His plan us!
Now is not the time to quit or back pedal or settle.
I KNOW how easy it is to do these things. We’re almost done with the house (just finishing the basement and making it a home) and we’re already gathering people here. It’s easy to get comfortable with things as is, and think we’re “done” in a way. But I know this house, land and gathering place is for the Lord’s purposes that He has called us to. He has given us this place and called us to this place to make His glory known in ways that He has shown us and will continue to show us. His Purposes still remain.
Yet it’s so easy for things to get convoluted. I think this word really sums it up on how easy life can get confusing, especially in the world we live in today.
Convoluted: “extremely complex and difficult to follow.”
We hear God’s Word, we see the signs, we open up to His leading, we even go forward in faith, and then we wonder if we really heard exactly what we thought we heard. Or… FEAR takes over and we think how can we possibly DO that Lord?. Or we backtrack… and we question whether we heard Him right…
Is it just me?
I don’t know about you, but lately I have been wondering about all of these things.
Does it even make sense? A “Gathering Place” in His name…
But God, in His sovereignty, gently REMINDS us in ways that make us go…
“oh yeah… that’s right. You are God and yes, you did tell me to trust You.”
Let’s remind ourselves today that God is a God of peace and not confusion. (I Corinthians 14:33)
You see… He moves us, directs us, shows us signs and opens doors and then we STILL wonder if we are still supposed to go through those doors! It’s like we need a road map with all those black dashes that lead from one dash to the next until we are exactly where we are supposed to be! Right?
Or we want a sticky note from heaven that says: GO HERE. Or “DO THIS BY MONDAY…”
what we really need is to be “made aware” again.
And we need to do something that isn’t in our nature…
We need to persevere.
Yes, that may be a dirty word in our culture today… and it kinda sounds like something HARD, right? Here’s the definition of the word:
Persevere: “to continue in a course of action even in the face of difficulty or with little or no prospect of success.”
Our pastor (lead by the Holy Spirit) gently reminded me of this last Sunday.
God’s Promises are Worth our Perseverance.
Wow. Ladies, I’m writing this because I NEED to hear this. My heart and head are working this out right now and maybe YOU need to hear this right now too.
“Often times God makes us do things that don’t make sense, but it’s about His plans and our obedience.” Joshua Taylor
God’s calling on our lives requires something of us and we may not fully understand it all, we may never get that road map or sticky note, but it’s what makes us dependent on Him and not on ourselves. We are called to deny ourself and obey the call of the Lord on our lives.
And it will probably come with a lot of perseverance… and obedience.
Last Sunday we read through Joshua 6 and the story of the wall of Jericho. We all probably know the story of the wall falling down, but do we remember the obedience of Joshua here? He didn’t hear what God was telling Him to do and then go off to think about it, take the time to tell others how weird it was or baffle about how this was going to work out. No, he immediately obeyed and followed through with God’s plan. Read the whole story today and look at the way Joshua followed through on God’s promises.
We are called to this kind of obedience too.
So you may be asking HOW… How do we become aware of God’s calling on our lives?
Well, in my own life I will tell you that the turning point for me was being in God’s Word daily. I KNEW, from years of growing up in the church, that I should be reading the Bible daily, but it just wasn’t something I did for many, many years. I don’t know if it was something I thought I didn’t have time for or if it was a kind of “I’m not going to do what your telling me to do” legalistic type of thing growing up… but I can tell you it changed my life drastically when the Lord put it on my heart to start my day with Him.
It made me AWARE.
It’s what brought us here to Colorado. I was in God’s Word, open to His will for our lives and He showed us His plans and promises… that we could have NEVER dreamed up on our own! Honest to goodness.
Having an awareness each day of the Lord as you start each day will radically change your life too!
We all wake up in the morning and we are instantly aware of something…
Maybe it’s that we are aware of who is posting on Instagram?
Maybe it’s what’s going on in the world because we turn on the news or check our news app first?
Maybe it’s what people are doing on Facebook that morning?
But WHAT IF we started our morning aware of God’s great love for us! Or what if by reading God’s Word, and maybe a devotional we’ve had on the shelves for a while, it would remind us that He is with us through the HARD or the stressful or the craziness of 2020?!
What if we started our day being made aware of the Joy of the Lord and all His promises that He wants to impart to us!
I think this verse would be what we experience DAILY:
“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.” Isaiah 26:3
As believers, there is so much joy that God wants to give us! We get to take part in what God is doing here on earth! (even if it’s hard and we can sometimes forget) He IS working in this world, and even though the world may not see it, we get to be a part of it! Let’s not compromise in our obedience. Let’s not be fearful or forget what God is calling us to do.
Let’s be a witness of the JOY and HOPE that God wants to give this world!
And as a mother/daughter team who LOVES to gather… let’s all be hopeful for the time when we can come together again and be creative as we draw closer to the Lord!
I hope this blesses you in some way today. Know that we are always here if you have a prayer request or would love to talk to someone about the hope you can have in Jesus Christ. You can leave a comment here or leave a message through the “contact” button at the top.
Hugs to all,
Laura McCollough