Encouragement

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If you are going to share your story with others, it is helpful to prayerfully reflect on the pattern that may begin to occur as the years go by. For example, you may find like Elijah that after great victories come times of extreme testing. This helps you to prepare mentally and spiritually for probable attack by Satan. What will you do to prepare yourself? How have you defended yourself in the past?

Surrendering to God’s will usually does not come easy, and every show of support or act of kindness is a gift. When I was ordained, for example, prayerful encouragement came from all quarters within the denomination, the ecumenical family and the wider community. God’s grace was proving to be more than sufficient; it was practically causing my cup to overflow.
In what ways have your cup overflowed in the past few years and which prayers seem yet to be unanswered by God?

At that time, my thoughts began to drift back to all the changing scenes of my life, the many still moments and turning points when God’s love for me would surface with extraordinary power, or when a deep darkness would descend and keep me in a “cloud of unknowing.” What are some of the changing scenes that you can recall? What are some of your best memories and which experiences seemed almost unbearable at the time? How has God used them to your advantage and to God’s advantage? Where do you still need to find resolution or healing?

There were many lessons along that way that seemed to make no real sense until I was further along and could see the pattern appearing. Even foolish mistakes were woven into the story so that I could be more compassionate, considerate, or confrontational. My life’s random events were shaping me into the person I needed to be in order to fulfill my part in the divine plan. It could all be redeemed and count for something if I allowed it to be touched and blessed by God.

How open is your life to God’s influence? Is God able to do a new thing through you for your family, your church, your neighborhood, your country or God’s world? If you believe something we are told that we can achieve it. Let God dream for you something that is absolutely impossible for you to achieve at all unless God makes it happen for you.
Keep believing in God and you will fulfill God’s will.

This is a brand new calendar year, and there will be many opportunities presented to us each day to grow in knowledge, grace, wisdom, understanding and character. Just remember that hindsight is painful sight, while foresight comes from insight which comes from the Holy Spirit. Not all experiences are preventable, but much of our suffering comes from avoidable sin. Remain open to God’s direction, allow God to use you this year in a wonderful and unexpected way.

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