A little encouragement

The other night I had a really vivid dream of preaching at church, and I woke up remembering so clearly what I said. I was so encouraged personally, so I wanted to share it in a blog post with you all. There were 2 different topics from my dream that I pray are encouraging to you in whatever life looks like for you at the moment.

First point - If you have a house fire, you don’t call a doctor or an accountant or a plumber, you get a firefighter. When we have a spiritual “fire” or issue, we so often turn to all the other things that we want to fix our problem – social media, google, other people, coping mechanisms, distractions, etc, instead of going straight to God who is our “firefighter”. Ephesians 6:16 says “above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.” It doesn’t say shield of knowledge, or shield of doing ‘enough good things’ or shield of internal strength. It’s when we turn to Him and put our trust in Him that He is able to quench the fire from the enemy.

Reflecting on how I often go to different sources to find “wisdom” or knowledge when I am trying to sort out a problem, reminded me of a prophetic word we got early last year. This prophetic word spoke about how God is the source of all the resources, wisdom and strength that we need. In our efforts, we might go looking in a metaphorical “pantry” for what we’re needing, but we won’t find anything there, we will only find what we need in God. Philippians 4:19 says “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” And while this is relevant all the time, this is especially relevant to us right now. Jacob and I have started fostering, so along with our normal busy lives, we have had extra big decisions to make about the direction we’re headed as a couple. Some days and some decisions seem overwhelming as we try to put our ‘ducks in a row'. However, if someone asked me how we’re making these decisions, I would say that I’m trying to do what God is calling me to do but in reality, sometimes I’m doing what I think God would want me to do not what He’s necessarily told me to do. This reminder from the verse was a real challenge for me to turn to God more than I turn to other influences to guide my decisions.

Second point – In my Bible reading plan, I recently read Psalm 139 so the words had obviously stuck with me more than I thought. The words from verse 13 are really powerful - “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb.” Knitting is such a delicate art that creates well planned pieces that are entirely unique. I love that it doesn’t just say that God made us, (even though He did obviously!) but being knitted together is so intimate and special. When someone gives a baby something that they bought from the shops, it’s so lovely, but when someone has hand knitted something for a baby, it carries such a personal touch. So being knitted together by God shows us a glimpse of how personal He is to us and how uniquely He has designed each of us for the exact unique calling that He has purposed us and equipped us for.

So, I pray that one or both of these random revelations that I’m mulling over at the moment, uplifts you today.