You are the God who works wonders; you have made known your might among the peoples. Psalm 77:14

About six months ago my husband and I went away for the weekend. We didn’t go away to sightsee or to reunite with friends or family, we just needed a quiet getaway. We went to a place that we’ve gone before. There was a nice wildlife sanctuary and an outlet mall nearby and most important a lovely hotel in a quiet setting.

Little did we know that our getaway was planned by God, for the purpose of beginning this blog.

The Holy Spirit had brought thoughts to mind about the blog, and I had entertained the idea. But I never really took hold of it or took it seriously.

Even though my writing skills had been complemented in the past, I was usually surprised at those compliments. As a 10th grade dropout with a GED, I found it hard to believe that my writing skills were anything special. So you can imagine how uncertain I was when I felt like God was calling me to start this blog.

First, I had no idea where to start. I am not a techy person, I have never built a website, I didn’t even know what platform or formats or web host to use. I didn’t know what the cost would be. I didn’t know how much work it would require. And I simply was not certain that I had the ability to do what God was asking me.

Well, on our getaway, my husband went out for a bit and while he was gone the Holy Spirit moved again, urging me to start this blog. So I sat down for a few moments, opened my laptop and said to myself “I’ll just do a search and see what a blog will require.“. I thought to myself “I’ll see what it costs to build a website, I’ll see how difficult it is, I’ll just do a little investigating”.

That was all God needed. He needed me to just begin to be obedient. The moment I began the search, my faith and trust deepened. I began to accept that God might actually be able to do this, through me.

There were a number of things that had delayed my starting our blog.

The first thing that caused me to delay was doubting myself. And, if this blog had anything to do with me, because of the number of failures I’ve managed in this life, that doubting would have been justified. But this blog had nothing to do with me, this was all the work of the Lord and all things are possible with God (But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26).

The next thing that caused me to delay was fear of judgement, ridicule and embarrassment. I worried about whether I might say something that offended someone and how they would react. I worried about whether my writing skills were good enough and if not would I be ridiculed? Would it be clear to people that I was a 10th grade dropout and would I be embarrassed? But God says “Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the LORD,” Jeremiah 1:8. Philippians 4:13 says “I can do all things through Christ to strengthen to me“. And in Romans 8:21 it says “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?“.

I also suffered from a lack of faith and of obedience, which caused further delay. I was not looking to God and saying “you can do all things and I will serve you”. I was ultimately saying “this is a big job and I’m not doing it because I am not sure you can get it done, God”. I was asking, “ Can God really do this? “. How vulgar, that I would doubt Him, after all He has done in, with, for and through me.

I was no different than the disciples who feared the storm while Jesus lay quietly in their boat (And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.). I doubted the very God who could cause a storm to cease with just the sound of His voice. I doubted His strength, His power, His protection and His sovereignty. Forgive me Lord.

When I think about my lack of trust and faith and obedience, I’m reminded of the Israelites during the Exodus. They had seen God work through seven plagues, He freed them from slavery, He led them into the wilderness and fed them with manna from heaven, He parted the Red Sea so that they could cross on dry land and then released the force of the waters onto their enemies. He rescued them over and over and they continued to doubted, lack faith, lack trust and were disobedient. That epitomizes what I was doing. Thank you Jesus for your shed blood. Thank you God for your great mercies and thank you for my forgiveness.

I had seen God rescue me over and over. He forgave me my sins He redeemed me and calls me His child. How could I lack faith and trust and be disobedient? But, I did…until He broke through my ignorance and my stubbornness.

Our blog has been up and running for about six months now. We’ve had almost 50,000 views and God has shown me over and over that He’s in this with me and using this website for His purposes and Honor. All the glory belongs to the Lord. (Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” John 11:40).

I believe someone is reading this Blog right now whom God has been urging to do something big for Him. I believe with all my heart that a number of people are thinking about – that thing that they know God is calling them too. But, they/you have been afraid, lacked faith, lacked trust and disobeyed him. God is calling you into obedience and is saying “have faith and trust me. Submit and I am going to do something big through you.

Do IT! Trust Him and DO IT!

I pray that right now we would all reflect on the way that God has rescued each of us over and over and over. And I pray that we would reflect on how He has provided For us over and over and over. I pray that we would consider how trustworthy He is, how faithful He is and how worthy He is. I pray that right now we would hear God’s voice, that we would know in our hearts those things that He’s calling us too and I pray that because of who He is and all that He has done and because of the magnitude of His love for us, that we would lift holy hands to the sky and say “yes Lord, I’ll do it” or “yes Lord, I’ll go where you’re sending me” or “yes lord, use me”.

He wants to use us to glorify Himself, draw others to Him and to make an eternal impact in heaven and all we have to do is say “yes”. Do it, say “yes!”.

If you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, if you fear what others might say if you pursue a relationship with Him or you doubt that He can even use you or perhaps you think that He doesn’t even desire a relationship with you, I pray that you would go to our Life Preserver page (https://forgiven-n-loved.com/life-preserver/) and pray the prayer that’s outlined there. God wants to forgive you, call you His child, give you eternity in heaven with Him and use you in a big way, say “yes!”.

Once you have prayed that prayer, please reach out to me at Admin@Forgiven-N-Loved.com and let me know, so that I can be in prayer for you.

Luv ya!