Blessed be your name, Jesus!

ugh, my poor blog has been so neglected! Oh well, it's been BUSY! Our life is not even the same as it was a week ago, I'm not even sure that this blog has enough space to write down all the things going on and the prayers being answered. Over the past month or so God has laid some serios things on my heart to pray for and I have and I see him working and answering those prayers in mighty ways.

As I'm sure many of you know, we have been wanting to take our window business full time for awhile. As of lately we have been praying about it and talking to Pastor Charlie and getting prayer to be in Lord's will in doing so. This would be a HUGE step of faith. I had a lot of fears and really no reason for them. God is God and he is in control. Josh spoke with Pastor Charlie on Thursday at lunch and then after Josh left I starting dusting shelves and rearranging books. I took a stack of books and put them on the shelf and made sure they were tidy and pretty and I noticed before I placed them, one of the books was 'The Prayer of Jabez.' I knew the book had something to do with a small prayer asking for blessign and I thought to myself "I should read that", but I just went on with what I was doing. I placed the books, grabbed a dusty silk plant and took it outside to dust. When I came back in 30 seconds later, I went back to organizing the shelf and where I had stuck the group of books previously, The Prayer of Jabez was pulled ALL the way out. Whoa. Weird. I JUST PUT THOSE BOOKS THERE AND THEY WERE PERFECT!! I sat and read it and the prayer is this:

"Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request."

That pretty much sums up our cry to the Lord. So we continued to pray. On Friday, we had Bible Study (keep in mind that before thursday, there were many other things pointing to this being a good decsion for us, as well, but the direction became much more clear as of last week) Louise's message was so good, as always, but one thing I heard was her say, "As Christians we are not meant lived these contained, secure lives." I iprayed with Rachelle and then went home to talk to Josh more and we prayed some more and then he spoke to Pastor Charlie for more prayer and wisdom and then he put in his one week notice. PUT IN HIS ONE WEEK NOTICE!!! EEEEEKKKKK!!!! And the fear disipated. It's gone, I'm stoked and God had just laid blessing after blessing on us, IMMEDIATELY after we took that step of faith. We got a ne customer who was amazing and shared our info with many friends and we've already received phone calls from her referrals. A 4th Chick-Fil-A CALLED US!! CALLED US!! And boom! 4th Chick-fil-a! We are doing another significant quote on large commercial area tonight. Sunday we sold 'Bondage' (the ranger). Thak you, LORD! Josh's female boss who is known for tearing people down called him into her office yesterday and wanted to know why he was leaving. Of course Josh was braced for the worst when he walked in, but she did nothing but praise him for the work he's done there and asked him to quote the building and their personal residence!! WHAT?!?! WHAT?!?! PEOPLE, this is nothing short of an act of God. None of this. This is all God. God could slam all these doors shut as fast as he opened them. Josh and I are striving to be obedient and be good stewards of what he gives us. It's all his anyway. None of it's ours. None of it. He gives and he takes away and I will say "Blessed be your name". God is on the throne in good times and in bad. And we have had some valleys.

GET READY TO SWITCH GEARS.

Speaking of valleys, we have some dear friends in the valley right now. We have had 2 people close to our family be diagnosed with cancer in the last week. and another who relapsed about 3 months ago. And I want you to know friends, that you are on my heart 24/7. We are grieving with you and praying for you and your loved ones. The Bible says, "And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them." Romans 8:28. It's hard to conceive how any of this can work out to be good, but God is faithful, he is on the throne, he is in control and his plan will prevail. Death was conquered at the cross and we have the hope of eternity. No cancer is going to take away eternity with our Savior. He loves you and he has his arms around you and he is weeping with you because this was neverpart of the original plan. He will NEVER let you go. I have never been more heavenly minded in my LIFE and pain and sufferin falls on the believing and the unbelieving, Paul says we have can have an "inexpressible and glorious joy" in our time of suffering. Rejoice bc "I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns." Hang in there, friends, brothers and sisters in Christ. GOD HAS A PLAN. He is faithful. I love you and so many others love you. We are hitting our knees and praying for you!

Bondage to Freedom and back again

The word 'disappointed' hardly seems to capture how bummed I am, but I guess it will do. Bought a truck this weekend only to find out it needs quite a bit of work put into it. I was fine with spending some money, but I'm afraid it will just be the beginning of a money pit. We listed it back on Craigslist to hopefully be able to recover what we paid for it.

I feel almost petty that this is my biggest personal issue right now, but Josh and I have worked so hard to save money. I'm pretty sure the Lord is trying to teach me something in all of this mess. I was so excited to not have to share one car anymore. And now that just went 'kapoof!' for now. We'll see what happens...

Onto more important things. So many people need prayer right now. My heart is so grieved for families dealing with illness or death. We talk about suffering and pain and death all the time in church growing up, you know it's a part of life and it's gonna happen and you know it's gonna hurt and be sad, but when it strikes it hurts like you never even knew it existed. We wait and hope for blessings and for God to come through for us in prayer on the things we ask for, but then when suffering hits it's like being hit with a bus. And then the bus backs up and pounds you again.

Today I thought about when Lazarus was raised from the dead, but before Jesus raised him from the dead, the Bible says he wept. Why on earth would Jesus weep?? He knew he was bringing him back. I love that he does weep because that showed one of the most beautiful qualities about Christ which is empathy. He is weeping with us and hurting with us. You know why? It wasn't supposed to be this way. Nope, nope. BUT it is. we're rotten, awful sinners and that's just the way it is, but PRAISE THE LORD that we WERE created for something more and that Jesus died for us so one day we will be in heaven and NO. MORE. TEARS. PAIN. HURT. SUFFERING. No more shooting police officers and dying soldiers. No more cancer. No more divorce. No more surprise freak deaths. No more financial woes. No more child abductions, rape and abuse. I can't wait. I can't wait to be held safe and sound in the arms of My Savior. I am so grateful for what he did on the cross so we can have the promise of heaven with Him.

If you don't have that hope and haven't asked Christ to come into your life, Say a prayer asking him to. Confess your sins and ask him to come live in your heart and to transform your life. BEST decision you will EVER make!!