I'm Believing God for Something Greater

Steven Furtick...he is one of my favorite preachers and authors.  He speaks in ways that speak to my heart.  My kids would say that he yells when he preaches, so I guess sometimes I need that.  I think he just has passion and is excited about what he's telling you.  :)

His newest book is called Greater.  It's subtitle is Dream Bigger.  Start Smaller.  Ignite God's Vision for Your Life.  The book is developed around the life of Elisha in the Old Testament.

It's a quick and great read to encourage you to keep believing God for big things.  One of the chapters is called Digging Ditches and it talks about how you have to do the work and then prepare for the rain.

Digging ditches…God has a downpour scheduled in your near future.  The deeper you dig, the greater the rainfall has the potential to be.

Sometimes as your faith is getting greater, your situation is getting worser.  Sometimes you pray in great faith, act in great obedience – and the miracle still doesn’t come.  The ditch stays dry.  You still have only one jar of oil.  Sometimes you’ve done everything you know to do and in the end you’re left with a sense of disappointment with God, even a sense that God has failed you.  And if you have never experienced a moment like that, well, quite honestly you haven’t lived long enough.  

Another chapter tells us that God doesn't waste our faith.

In not one of those instances did God misappropriate His children’s faith.  Not an ounce of it was wasted.  Even when it seemed as if He was deaf to their prayers, He was collecting their faith and making a plan to use it in a greater way.

God is working on our behalf even when our prayers don’t seem to be working at all.  Maybe one day we’ll see that the greatest setbacks in our lives were actually the greatest setups to see God’s glory in places we didn’t even know to look.

This book encouraged me to believe God for something greater.  It encouraged me not to be content with things as they are, but to keep praying for big things.  We are trying to instill that same desire in our children.  One is praying for more integrity, one is praying for more friends and one is praying for God to help him be more organized.  They are not happy with the status quo either....they want things to change.  They are believing God for something greater and Derek and I are as well.

Whenever you do what God has called you to do – in any situation, in any given moment – He will do something greater.

Green with Envy

I've read a few of Craig Groeschel's books and enjoyed them, so of course I ordered his newest book as soon as it became available.  I read it within a few weeks, but have delayed (for months) writing this post because it doesn't paint a pretty picture.

But in the spirit of authenticity, I'm going to share how this book spoke straight to my heart.  If you can't handle straight forward truth and brutal honesty, please don't read on.

It's called Soul Detox -- Clean Living in a Contaminated World.  It is broken into three parts -- Toxic Behaviors, Toxic Emotions and Toxic Influences.  The whole book was good, but there was one chapter that was shocking to me.  It was shocking because I never knew that this topic had such a stronghold in my life.

The title is Green with Envy: Scratching the Poison Ivy of Comparison.

"Envy is when you resent God's goodness in other people's lives and ignore God's goodness in your own life" Groeschel

It might be that you envy someone else's house, someone else's car, someone's teeny tiny figure, someone's financial status, someone's obedient children, someone's vacation, someone's _____________.  You fill in the blank.

For me, it was someone else's answered prayer. I felt like God was hearing everyone else and answering their prayers and ours continued to remain unanswered.  And I could give you a list of reasons why in my finite, selfish mind, God should answer our prayers.  We are serving in the church...I'm on church staff for crying out loud, we give money to missions and to the church, we go on mission trips, we sponsor a couple of children in a couple of countries, we pray for those who are sick, we reach out to those that are hurting and we buy a paper which benefits the homeless people in the Nashville community.  (My list could do on but you get the point.) I'm ashamed to admit that my list was all about what "we were doing and not doing".  God doesn't work like that.  He's probably not that interested in our check list of things we do or don't do, because that's not how His accounting system works.  He loves us whether we "do" or whether we "don't".

In all honesty, I feel like every possible facebook friend that I have that is waiting on an adoption referral has received a referral or has already brought the child home. We continue to wait.  I can rejoice with those who rejoice.  In some of these cases, I have been in the trenches of prayer with these families and I truly am happy.  But it is always a little bittersweet...there is a little sting.  Lord, why aren't you answering our prayer?  Why aren't we any closer to bringing our little boy home?  Did we hear you wrong?  Is there sin in my life?....  And the envy and comparison sets in.  And I wonder what God is doing because in my human mind none of this makes sense at all.  It doesn't seem fair.  And I find myself "resenting God's goodness in other people's lives and ignoring God's goodness in my own life". I quickly realized that I was fretting and despairing over what I didn't have and not even seeing the good that God has given.

I have a great husband.  I have three beautiful domestically adopted children that are amazing testimonies of God's faithfulness and that He does answer prayer.  I have a nice house and a great church.  Derek has a good job.  I have absolutely the best friends and family that are walking this incredibly long journey with us and continue to encourage us.  And I found that when I counted my blessings and praised God for His goodness...the envy subsided, the comparison went away because the path He has for us is not the path He has for another.  Their wait wasn't supposed to be as long as ours and their story is just that...their story.  

I have lots of favorite verses in the Bible and I continue to get more.  What is so very neat is that my friends consistently send me about the same 10 verses.  I have to believe that these are the verses that we are supposed to claim for our adoption journey.  This was a favorite of mine before we started this process and today I received it from a friend (this is the third friend to send it).  This is my hope today!

I would have lost heart unless I had believed that I would see Your goodness, O Lord in the land of the living.  I will hope in You and be of good courage, and You will strengthen my heart; YES, I will hope in You, O Lord.
Psalm 27:13-14

Don't think that I still don't have days when I struggle with envy and comparison.  I do.  But I now recognize it in my life and quickly realize that this emotion is toxic and it isn't from the Lord.  What unanswered prayer do you have?  What does someone else have that you want?  Stop and see the goodness in your own life.  Thank Him for all that He has given.  And hope in Him, because even if the answer never comes, He is enough.

I am not what I want to be.  But still, I am not what I used to be.  And by the grace of God, I am what I am.  John Newton