Piece Us Together

REST IN ME, MY CHILD. Give your mind a break from planning and trying to anticipate what will happen. Pray continually, asking my Spirit to take charge of the details of this day. Remember that you are on a journey with Me. When you try to peer into the future and plan for every possibility, you ignore your constant Companion who sustains you moment by moment. As you gaze anxiously into the distance, you don’t even feel the strong grip of my hand holding yours. How foolish you are, My child.

Remembrance of Me is a daily discipline. Never lose sight of My Presence with you. This will keep you resting in Me all day, every day.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-19

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Jesus Christ. Do not quench the Spirit.

Psalm 62:5; 8

Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from Him....Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.

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I woke up this morning with an urgency to pray for our team. To pray for our trip.  With a burning need for God to show up. To reveal his plan. His purpose. His will. My spirit is anxious and restless. Confusion and peace flow in and out of my heart and my mind. I feel like a ship out at sea caught in a storm that came by surprise. Being tossed from side to side. Being tossed from Faith, Peace, Joy, Empowerment to Helplessness, Frustration, Confusion, Question, Doubt, Fear and Worry. All things the Lord tells us to not dwell on for they are not His Spirit He is the Spirit of Peace. He calms the storm.

Let me back up…

Yesterday June 9th, myself, and our team of 16 headed out to embark on a journey to spread the Love of Christ to the precious people of Ethiopia.  We arrived at the Midland airport full of joy and excitement about this trip. God has given so many people words, confirmations and has provided in supernatural ways for this trip.  Personally this trip means a lot. God has birthed a powerful and overwhelming Love in my heart for these people. A Love that I couldn’t create on my own. A Love from the Father. Many people on this trip share this Love. I long to minister to the sweet people. To be with them. Of them and serve them. We boarded our plane only to de-board because of maintenance issues with the plane. There was a “funny sound”.  We sat in the floor in the Midland airport for over 6 hours waiting on the mechanic (that they had to FLY in) to check it out and give it a good to go clearance to transport us to Houston. (Where we were connecting and hopping on a KLM flight to Amsterdam and ultimately to Ethiopia.) Seeing that we sat and watched our plane sit at our gate in Midland for 6 hours, we missed our connection to Amsterdam. However, we did finally make it to Houston. Only to negotiate new tickets and another flight for over 2 hours. Hitting a wall with no luck. We stayed the night in Houston with no game plan. We prayed, cried and pleaded with the Lord to make a way. With Hope fleeting and Faith slipping away that we are supposed to go to Ethiopia, we went to bed.  My sister at dinner last night shared her favorite part of the day and she proceeded to remind us all that we DO NOT have the spirit of fear and depression within us. We have the Spirit of God in us.  A Spirit of Joy and Peace. Right on sister!! Way to whip is into shape.

Today at breakfast we got word that there is a KLM flight departing from the airport that we are at, departing at 4:05 with 16 seats available. And that we had the seats! Not on standby, but that we had the seats and they were Firm! What an amazing miracle! We arrived at the airport here in Houston as soon as we could. While standing the check in line we quickly learned that Delta was showing in their system that they reserved our seats on that KLM flight but KLM shows that they have a full flight and we would be on standby and they felt strongly that we would not get on that plane. Once again, Disappointment and Confusion meet and flood our team. We pray. Seek God. Ask for a way. His way whatever it may be. Get us to Ethiopia.  So here we are, sitting on the cold concrete floor in the airport. With no direction. No plan. Clinging to hope, clinging to Jesus.

When I woke up this morning with the urgency to pray, I prayed with a restless heart. Stumbling on what I should be praying. Struggling to find what it is exactly that we should be praying for. Is Ethiopia our team’s final destination or is there someplace else that the Lord wants us to be? I couldn’t focus and my words bounced around like a bouncy ball in a rubber room. No control, no aim, no focus. So I opened my beloved Jesus Calling devotional, I am sure that many of you are familiar with this little gem written by Sarah Young. Some days I struggle with it and it doesn’t sit or resonate with me, but then there are days like today. Days where it is so dead on, it is eerie. 

I started this post with the devotional quoted straight out of the book with a few added verse because this is what we are all standing on today. How wonderful this sweet reminder is that God is our Companion. He has a STRONG grip on our hand. How foolish we are. We are on a journey with God today. An adventure really.  He is our refuge. My hope. Our Hope. Comes from him and him alone. We will Rejoice in Him today. We will pray continually for his wisdom, guidance and direction today. Will you pray with us? We WILL give him thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will in Jesus Christ. We will not quench the Spirit and let the enemy rob us of our purpose. Our Joy. Our Hope. Our security in our Father. He is FOR us NOT against us. He is so Faithful and Constant. Even when we can’t see what he is doing with our physical eyes, I know that he is for us, he will not forsake us in our weakness.

We don’t know what he is doing here with this situation. I know that God is good and he is working on all of us. Strengthening us, challenging our flesh, growing us closer to him and getting us to a place where we are having to rely completely on him. He will get the glory in all of this. Him alone.

I keep rolling this quote over and over in my head and believing it!!

When we are shattered by disappointment, we are pieced back together by Grace. – Bob Goff.

Will you believe this with me? We are shattered with disappointment but we KNOW God’s grace is sufficient and that we, each of us, and this trip will be pieced back together by HIS Grace!

God you can have me. You can have us. You can have this trip. We want to be where you are. Here are our hearts, our plans. Consume us and move us. Show us your way. Piece us back together. Stronger and more empowered then ever before with faith that can move mountains.