“You Won’t Relent Until You Have It All”

God is pursuing us. He’s relentless!! ha!

Think about it.
Before we knew Him and Jesus as our Lord and Savior, He pursued us, and He continues to pursue people who don’t know Him still.
Some people get annoyed by it. “Oh my gosh! He just doesn’t give up!!”
Others are in awe of it. “Oh my gosh! He doesn’t give up!!” ha.
And it makes me smile/laugh out loud every time I hear the question, “What makes Him so different from the other ones?”

And it doesn’t stop..
Even when we accept His gift of love, He is in constant pursuit of our hearts.
He longs for us to be with Him, to grow closer to Him, but it remains a choice.
He finds ways for us to fall in love with Him all over again on the daily and moment by moment basis.
He created us and knows exactly what makes our hearts happy, sad, frustrated, angry, etc…

You’d think He’d give up on us by now with how many times we refuse Him, turn away from Him, or not trust Him, but He doesn’t.

He absolutely refuses to give up on you because of how much He loves you!

So, for those of you who are annoyed, be aware that He won’t relent until He has it all!

And for those of you who are in awe, be thankful that He won’t relent until He has it all!

God is clever and sneaky….i love it! :)

it’s not really anything specific…

I just see in my life how He’s used little things to let me know everything will be okay, even though I have no idea what to expect or understand.
He’s there telling me, “Trust. Everything will be okay. I will take care of you.”

Despite how much I want to worry or be anxious, there’s a subtle, yet very significant, sense of peace and content that seems to suppress all worries when I think and believe, “God is good, and that’s enough.”

I don’t fully understand this sense of peace, but I KNOW He’s up to something, and as frightening as not knowing what that is…it fascinates me at the same time!!
It’s an adventure!

Here is the God,the author of the greatest story ever told.
He wrote every single life story and made us uniquely for a specific reason.
We are, in fact, a masterpiece, not a mass product.
He has something huge and more incredible planned for our lives, better than we could ever dream or imagine…

And then, having conversations and seeing God move in different people’s lives and situations…it’s fun and exciting being the outsider looking in, watching God’s handiwork when the people may not even realize what’s going on…and all you can/want to do is sit, watch and pray!!

God is clever and subtle (sneaky) in His ways, and when it hits you and you see all that He has done in an area(s), your response is an excited “Whoa!! I can’t believe it!” then, a calm, reflective appreciation “..really? that’s how you did that? …thanks!”

God Is Wonderful!

It’s been a really cool week!!
I’ve had a couple really cool conversations this week with customers, and I got some pretty cool feedback from my history professor…
It’s all God! He is just so absolutely incredible!!! =D

My favorite customer conversation so far, though was….

Today, I had a conversation with a customer.
He came in, ordered, and couldn’t believe he had been to our store 3 times in the same day!
I asked him how his day was going, and he mentioned he was a licensed caregiver who just picked up an assignment to help a young woman who just had a stroke.
I guess she’s about 40 years old.
She was a professor at OSU, her motor skills aren’t very good anymore, but she’s still very sharp, mentally.

It was all he could talk about, and I really enjoyed listening to what he had to say!

He got into sharing his life from the last 15 months and how God has worked in his life through today…(this conversation took place in between taking care of other customers, as well as while I was cleaning and doing my other tasks)..amazing how much can happen in a short amount of time..

He talked about how he was laid off about a year ago…for 15 months he didn’t have a car, or a job and within the last week (I think), he found out he needed to find somewhere else to live.
I’m not sure how old he is.
He’s young. My guess-he’s in his 40s, and has kids who are old enough to understand faith and God’s sovereignty.

He went on to talk about his involvement in inner city ministry.
He used to help troubled kids, including those into drugs and alcohol, and really spent a lot of time with them!!

“Man, that was something else. Just the stories of various family lives and just being able to help them out in different ways. It was great!
It just got to the point to where it was getting to be too much.
I had a family to tend to, so I needed to back off a little bit.”

I was able to tell him a little bit about the trip to Minneapolis last summer, and how it was really cool to be able to partner with the church and reach out to the Boys and Girls club and do a little inner city stuff as well..

He mentioned he raised his kids in the faith and that through the last 15 months, he really worried about what the next step looked like…his kids just kept saying, “why are you so worried? God’s got it under control.”
He then said, “you know, I’ve always said, ‘God’s timing isn’t ours. He’s never late. He’s always on time.”
He just kept praying that God would provide..

He went on to tell me about how within the last couple days, he was sharing his testimony with someone and a girl a couple aisles over came into the conversation.
“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be nosy, but I listened to everything you said.
These last 5 years have been kind of rough for me, and it was great to hear your story.”
She heard how he didn’t have a car.
He said he wasn’t trying to find a car. It was just a humbling experience to be without one.
The girl replied, “I have one. I can give it to you.” (Whoa!)
I guess they continued talking and knowing he was a licensed caregiver, she also knew of a job opportunity with that. (ha!)
THEN, on top of that, she heard about his housing situation and said, “I know of a place for you to live as well!! (Oh man!!)

The only thing he could say about it was, “It’s such a God-thing, Mandy!! It’s absolutely incredible!
I told my kids about it and they just shrugged it off, like “we told you, so!” (lol).
It was everything I’ve been praying for…”
He beamed the entire conversation!!

God is so great!!
I felt bad I couldn’t give him my full attention the entire conversation, but he totally understood I had a job to do.
It was SO cool to see his excitement about it, and I can totally relate when a God-thing happens and I run into another believer/person who understands and you just pour out everything that just happened-even if it’s someone you just met!

I thanked him for sharing his story with me. It was encouraging to hear!

Man…He told me it was encouraging to see a young person with faith and who understood God’s goodness, too.

It was just an awesome story that I really wanted to share with you guys!!

Hope you enjoy it and are encouraged as well!! =)