Blessed Assurance...

One year ago, Kurt had just come off of his first night shift on his then new job. I know, because I was journaling at the time, and recorded all that was going through my mind the next day.

It is hard to fathom that a year has gone by. I cannot help but praise the Lord for all He has done in our lives over the last 12 months. The faith He gave us to hang on to as we travelled that path, and the faith that was compounded as weeks and months went by with His hand of grace and provision shown to us is overwhelming.

Today I give testimony to the love and mercy of an Awesome God. Blessed assurance, I know He is very real!

As we continued to walk our path of uncertainty and walked through some times of darkness, God constantly gave certainty, and small amounts of light that He was there and holding everything together.

God knows our needs before we are aware of them. He has everything in the works to happen right when it is supposed to, not a moment too soon, and never late.

We who kneel and lift our eyes up to seek the One Who is our Maker, we know...He is there.

He is listening. He is aware. He is comforting, even as we are showing discomfort in His lack of revelation concerning our circumstances. We know.....because He makes Himself known.

He is the calm that comes after the storm of tears. He is the peace that abides amidst the conflict of confusion. He is the grace that appears when we most need to be broken. He is the God who is.

In two weeks Kurt will be finished with this year of night shifts and working weekends. He will begin a new job at a new location near the end of April. It was our daily prayer. We yearned to have him back on a day job and to have weekends free to be with us in church every Sunday and to see the boys playing sports. God has granted our petition.

We are thankful for the hard times and the dark times where we were unsure of what the next week would hold. It was through those days that God drew us in and was forging us, making us anew to be ready to go out and stand in Him, speak for Him... and make much about Him.

I am married to an honorable man. He is worthy of the respect I have for him. I am so grateful for all he has gone through and battled within himself to stand strong and keep doing whatever God put before him to do. Most of the time throughout the last 3 years, God never placed multiple choices before Kurt. There was only one choice each time, and there were no other options. It was as if our Lord was being sure that Kurt knew that every step of the way was God's, and only God's, not Kurt's doing. God was saying "Here is the way...walk ye in it."

I have admired Kurt's patience and his discipline not to jump the gun and try to make things happen ahead of God's timing. I believe God has pressed this into him as he has been tried with fire and come out knowing that God was taking care of him. God allowed him to see the intricate working of even the smallest details in our lives, and more often than not, after the fact.

My sisters in Christ, I am here today to tell you that the God of the heavens and earth is lovingly and carefully carrying out every detail in your lives. He has foreordained your lives from before you were born. He knows the moment you will take your last breath on this earth. He will take care of all the seconds and minutes in between those two events. And what He does, He does well. He is who He is.

The more we trust and hope in our God, the more merciful and gracious He is with us, and the more He carries us when the going gets too tough, when we are in need of Divine love and assistance.

This God is our God.

Know Him so that you can share Him and make Him known.

Pursue Him so that you can feel the awe when you glimpse the impossible being made possible.

Trust Him so that you can grasp the meaning of believing when you are NOT seeing.

Love Him so that you can know the pleasure of the One who made you for His good will and purposes.

Worship Him so that you can give the joy you feel in your heart back to the One who gave it first.

Decide today to be who you were created to be. God sent His Son that we might have life, and that as we walk this path on earth, we might have it much more abundantly! God wants us to know Him, to delight in Him, to rest in Him.

We deserve none of what He bestows upon us. But it is His nature to do so. He is love, and He is who He is.

This is my story. I will tell it and praise my Savior ....ALL the day long.

"While I live, will I praise the Lord. I will sing praises to my God while I have any being." Psalm 146:2

Blessings!

God Bless Justin on his 20th Birthday, as we are missing him. Thank you for him!