Happy December to all my friends here.
2019 – another decade closing behind us. Another chapter in our stories has been written. Here we stand on the brink of a new door opening before us.
As 2018 was coming to a close I felt a shift in me.
For the past decade I had been talking about a dream I had of writing a book. Frequently I was asked how it was coming. My reply was always, “it’s coming” with a smile on my face.
I have learned to rely on God’s timing. Life works so much better that way.
Christa, my writing coach had been prompting me to add another story to a series we used as a devotional on my website. Then she asked for five more. Then five more were delivered to her.
One day, she announced to me, “we have a book”!
This was not the book I had thought would be published first but the more I thought about it, I realized it was exactly the book I needed to publish.
As the next level of work began with the publisher we hired, I saw how God was putting the pieces together. He was showing me the perfect timing.
August 29, 2019
My coach and I prayed as I hit the publish button.
“Lord, please take this message of hope, redemption and Your love. Take it to every heart that needs to know You. Please Lord use this story of my brokenness and light a fire of desire and intention in hearts to know You in new ways. Please Lord, may all this be to Your glory forever and ever.”
There is another chapter to be written regarding August 29. In 2005, on this date, Katrina ravaged our lives and no one who lived here remained scarless. Each of us carries stories of those days and almost every one includes a story of how God showed up.
God took that date in my life and turned it into many stories. I believe, my ability to see Him clearer than ever before in my life, began to show up in my life. I didn’t realize the day I hit publish that it was August 29. He did.
Please know this. When you invite God into your stories life is writing, the remarkable will happen. You will no longer be drifting but He will be carrying you through the valleys, to the mountaintops. But the best thing I have learned is that He carries us in the everyday. In the middle places, He is always present. He is the best Guide ever.
“And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Exodus 33:14 (NIV)
“I know the plans I have for you,” announces the Lord. “I want you to enjoy success. I do not plan to harm you. I will give you hope for the years to come. Then you will call out to me. You will come and pray to me. And I will listen to you. When you look for me with all your heart, you will find me.”Jeremiah 29:11-13 (NiRV)
The first part of this scripture has been used so much. Sometimes flippantly and carelessly, even with a judgmental tone it has been hurled at me. It seemed the questions I was asking as I was seeking His presence in very difficult situations were wrong. Just stop asking questions and accept the fact that He knows. Yes, I believe He knows but there have been many times when I needed to know He knew. This verse and many more like it do confirm He knows. But I know that only by asking was I led to discovering the answers myself. Not by shutting down and simply accepting someone else telling me He knows.
The best part of this is that through the process, my relationship with Him deepened. And I met God in new ways with a personal encounter.
Often we neglect to read beyond the first verse of a well known scripture but as we read the next two here, look what God is telling us. The warning I share is this – define success through the lens of God’s definition which tells us relationship with Him is success – not the world’s. The world wants us to believe that unless our bank accounts are overflowing and our lives are full of possessions that we are failures. DO NOT BELIEVE THIS LIE!
When we shift our focus to the spiritual success God has planned for us, our hearts can begin to live joyfully in all circumstances. Add verses 12 & 13 and never read 11 without them again.
This is where I began to see steady evidence of God’s timing in my life. I released the expectations the world and I had placed on my life story. Nothing was repairing the stress fractures in me.
But, freedom from making my own plans changed the path of my life.
Once that releasing shift occurred in me, slowly healing began its work in me.
I’m learning to recognize His hand at work in me and it is changing everything.
I look forward to the next decade. I do not know what paths God has laid on the horizon before me. I don’t have to. My work is to keep my heart deeply in love with Him. Ignore the distractions. My life is really hard many days. In the most unbelievable ways and the most unexpected places, the world’s enemy shows up.
I pray for God’s protection. Though I am deeply shaken, my roots in Him hold me strong. When I bend like the winds of hurricane Katrina bent the trees in the storm, unlike them, I do not break.
Watch the horizon ahead this new year ushering in a new decade as well.
Exciting promises wait for us there as God’s words speak. When we look for Him with all our hearts, we will find Him.
Remember – He is waiting for you.
This is a very personalized excursion He has planned for you and me.
“Father, God, our provider, our healer, our creator and our Savior. Come into our lives as a new chapter begins. Come into the plans You have laid before us and show us Your ways. Show us how to best walk into the new decade and the new chapter ahead. We love You, Lord. Teach us when we struggle to see through the trials of this life. Teach us how to find You. Take away any doubt we may face and come close Lord. We love You. We praise Your Holy name. Amen”
So much of life is spent in those “between” places. Janet has combined her love for photography and gift of noticing beauty in the journey into this dynamic devotional-style message. Janet transparently shares about how she saw glimpses of God in the triumphs, trials and everything in between.
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