What Have You Got To Lose??

When the love of God became real and personal in my life, His words in the Bible became alive in my heart!  They stopped being just mere words of truth that resonated in my head.  Instead my heart claimed them to be truths that were spoken directly to me, promises and wisdom given directly to me from the Father's heart, because the living Word became alive in me and He became Lord of my life!

In order for me to live out Proverbs 3:5, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding,” I had to let go of other things/people that I was putting my trust into before God.  For the past 1-2 years He has shown to me that I loved and found security in other things more than Him (i.e. my husband, family, kids, home, finances, talents), and I was allowing those things to become my source of security, trust, joy and peace.  It was quite the roller coaster ride, and although I love roller coasters, I wanted to get off this one.  When I got to that breaking point of asking the Lord, “What does it look like to love you with all my heart, soul, mind and strength…,” I was then able to fully receive what He’s wanted to give me all along – His love!  First, I had to acknowledge that I wasn’t walking in His love.  Second, I had to let go of control and let God be God in my life.

Has God ever asked you to do something that just didn’t make sense or seemed impossible?  Out of fear or not understanding, maybe you chose to go the safe route and missed out on the blessings He wanted to give you or the lessons He wanted to teach you.  Or, maybe you are walking in faith now, doing what seems impossible because you know the God of the impossible and have dedicated your life to living for Him!  Wherever you are at in your journey, know that you can trust God with every aspect of your life because He has your best interest at heart and He has great plans for you!  Ask yourself this - when you encounter hardships, do you become overwhelmed, stressed, anxious, worried and try to figure things out on your own?  When we become this way we are taking our focus off what God can do and are putting it upon ourselves.  Anxiety is only a stumbling block and a hindrance to walking the path that God has set for you.  Or are you putting your faith and trust in the Lord, not only for your eternal salvation, but with everyday life and laying your burdens and cares down at His feet?  He wants to be our first stop for everything!!  Many believe that things will always work out how they’re supposed to, but that’s not always the case when we aren’t seeking God for direction.  When we aren’t seeking and obeying His direction, we aren’t living life the way He intended for us to live it.  Sometimes we just let life happen and when it looks good we assume we’re on the path God wants us to be on, or when life is tough we occasionally give credit to the enemy for robbing us of God’s blessings and promises.  Well, God revealed to me in my own personal journey that this is not always the case.  Yes, God will turn things around and work things out for His good for those who love Him and seek Him, but we must get out of His way and allow Him to be Lord of our life and do what He does best – be God!  We also need to stop blaming the enemy every time things don’t go our way because he’s not always at fault.  Sometimes things don’t go the way we want because that’s not how God wants them to go.

How often do you wake up asking God what He’d like to do with you today and then actually put it to action?  Note - this is not a spirit of performance but a spirit of obedience because you love Him so much!  How often do you ask God what His dreams and plans are for you (or share yours with Him) and then actually start living out those dreams?  How often do you include God in your daily walk and listen for His voice and see the good He is doing and then thank Him for it?  Is your life dependent on Him or have you taken the own lead in your life?  What do you have your gaze on?  He does tell us there will be storms in life, but when those storms come what are your eyes fixed on – your circumstances or Him??  Our actions and reactions are evidence of what lies in our heart, and He wants to cleanse us and prune us of everything that is not of Him.  These are questions I’ve had to ask myself before, and through a very humbling process, God showed me where I had gotten off course.  Let me share a little more of my journey with you…………

For a long time Josh and I lived a life of routine, a lifestyle approved by American standards.  We had great careers, made good money, owned a home, had a family, went to church, had freedom to enjoy life and entertain ourselves whenever we wanted.  Then we heard a sermon one Sunday on living a simplified life so that we can pour more into the Kingdom.  Roughly 6 years ago we began a journey with God called “letting go”.  Most of you know that we’ve gone from 2 incomes to 1, added 3 more children to our family, and experienced pay cut after pay cut after pay cut.  It wasn’t until this last position Josh accepted at the Salvation Army that we understood why God had asked him to take a job that pays less than what we can live off of (on paper).  He is showing us that, through obedience (even when it doesn’t make sense), we can trust that He is our provider and will take care of our every need…..and still live out our “impossible” dreams with him because He makes it all possible!  Josh could easily go find a job that pays well or go find more work to sustain us better financially.  I could even work somehow from home or find a PT job and have someone watch our kids.  However, those things are not what God is asking us to do right now.  When you love and trust Him then it makes the temptation of going outside His will so much easier to ignore.  We want to live a life that is fully dependent on Him and be radically obedient to whatever He asks us to do.  Some might question our sanity or whether or not we’re clearly hearing from God, or they might even think we’re being irresponsible with our money by spending thousands of dollars to travel wherever He tells us to go because from the world’s standpoint we are living in “poverty” and shouldn’t be spending our money that way, but for us that doesn’t really matter because we are living our lives to please God and not man [Galatians 1:10].  Even with less money to live off of, we are richly blessed and eternally humbled to be able to live a life for Him, and He’s taught us to be generous with the little we have because it’s all His  anyway and His resources are endless!  And you know what? He’s blessed us with far more than we ever expected.  In fact, we recently found out that Josh is going to be getting a raise, praise the Lord!!  More money to pour into His Kingdom however He chooses.  The key here is perspective.  What has become so important in your life that it has taken precedence over Him?

Here’s a quote from one of our friends that we met in Africa: “It’s fun living a life in His presence and doing what we see the Father doing instead of living our old routine of ‘doing life responsibly’ and fitting His plans in when possible.  I love that HE is our focus now!  Following His leading and living by faith is SO much fun!!”

God showed us that we are going to be traveling in the future.  We don’t know when, we don’t know how often, we just know.  This past summer God told us to get ready to be mobile.  One of the things He showed us was that at some point we were going to have to give up our house.  We are at peace with this because it’s one less thing that grounds us from being able to go (possibly move) where He tells us to.  This summer we are going on a mission trip to Pohnpei, Micronesia.  We will be leaving with a team from our church the beginning of June and be gone for approximately 2 weeks.  We are excited to serve the people there and share the love of God with them.  It seems impossible for us to go right now because we don’t have the money, but we know that God is going to take care of that and He’s already worked things out so that our kids will be taken care of while we’re gone!  Plus, on the same day that Josh accepted his current position at Salvation Army he also received permission to take time off this summer for the trip.  God gave us an open invitation to go and He is paving the way for it to happen!  Micronesia has been on our hearts ever since we attended the Harvest Missions School in Africa last summer.  We are praying into whether or not this will be a long term residence of ours in the future, so your prayers would be greatly appreciated.  Our dream and passion is to bring the Light and Love to teenagers and/or young adults (or whoever crosses our path for that matter) who are lost or in spiritual bondage.  God gave me a dream around 16-years of age of multiple homes/shelters.  At the time I did not know what the buildings in my dream represented, but slowly He has been revealing more of the purpose for this dream and it is exciting to partner with Him and see things come to fruition.  We’d like to run a home/shelter someday that provides a place for teens to come to and simply be loved to Jesus!!  If you are feeling God tell you to do something that just doesn’t make sense, don’t worry about the details or what it will look like. If God wants you to take a step in any direction, He already has your path set before you. All you have to do is walk on the path He has set. He will take care of you. Give God your worries in prayer and let Him lead you.  He will give you a peace that surpasses all understanding [Philippians4:6-7].  This is a quote I came across, “Sometimes God doesn’t reveal the full blueprint of our lives, but He always shows us the next step.”  He’s put us in a position where we get to minister to this age group already so we’re excited to see what direction He leads with that.  If you’re interested in following us on our journey with that, you can visit our ministry page on Facebook: The Bridge Student Ministries.

Next time you face a hardship, ask yourself….. Will I allow myself to be overwhelmed or will I keep my eyes focused on the Lord and hang onto the promises and truths that are for me today?  Is my faith genuine to the point where I will trust Him?

What have you got to lose?