God, Are You Sure?!

Good Morning! It's been morning for me since about 4:45 this morning, not by choice of course. If you know me, you know I don't play around with my sleep! If I'm gonna miss a minute of it, it had better be a good reason! I suppose the reason for my lack of sleep last night and for the past few nights is because I have a lot on my mind.

Today is a new day for me. It's scary and somewhat exciting. You see, Saturday was my last "official" day of working with my mom at a store we built together over the last 2 years, Monkey Charms. Monkey Charms is a women's clothing & accessories store in Flowood, MS. My family has spent the last 2 years devoted to this store. In the very beginning, it was just me & mom (& dad, of course). It has been such a blessing to have been able to work with my mom who has always been like my best friend! It has been amazing to get to work with my family, and see God take an idea that He gave my parents during a very hard season of their life, and grow it into something great! It was also a blessing for me to have such an awesome job even before I graduated college, and then to not have to worry about what I was going to do when I graduated. It just fell into place, well, God made it fall into place. I have gained so much experience from working there. Mostly how to deal with people! All kinds of people! And yes, there are many, MANY crazy people that shop in Flowood! God has taught me so much working there over the last couple of years, and time after time, when I would ask God, "Are you sure this is where I am supposed to be?" Each time God would answer, "Yes, when I want you to leave, I will let you know!" That has been another blessing, to know that I have been exactly where God wanted me.

Sometime back in September/October of last year, I began feeling a discontent, like God was calling me to something else. My only problem was I couldn't figure out what it was He was calling me to. I chased after a couple of different things I thought might be God, but they weren't. This left me very confused for some time. I finally said, "God, if you want me somewhere else, You're going to have to give me something else." After all, I reasoned, we do have bills to pay and I will need something else to go to if I leave Monkey Charms. The discontent continued. I couldn't figure it out, and I became very impatient & frustrated with God. "Hello....didn't you hear me God?! If you want me somewhere else, YOU'RE going to have to give me something else!" Nothing. Long story short, after telling God my demands multiple times but completely failing to ask Him what He thought about it, God completely humbled me by showing me my selfishness. Who am I to make demands of God? Who am I to ask Him do things MY way?! God showed me that He will do whatever it takes to bring Himself the most glory! Deep down, this makes sense to me. This is ultimately the desire of my heart - to make much of Him, & to bring Him the most glory possible through my life! So I finally began listening to God again and got on board with His agenda. His answer, "I want you to quit Monkey Charms now in faith, believing that I am in control - My plan is perfect." Thus began the "buts"..."But this...But that..." What about money? What about my mom? What about Monkey Charms? God's answer seemed to be, "No buts....My plan...My glory...don't worry!" So...I told my mom, and while we were both sad, we both acknowlege that God's plan is better than ours. God is blessing Monkey Charms and will continue to bless it! I'll still be around and involved, but God is asking me to take this time off and trust Him.

I was reading Acts 8 this morning in the L3-the story of the Ethiopian that received Christ. My favorite part of this story is Phillip's sensitivity to the Holy Spirit's voice. He was just preaching, doing his thing and the Holy Spirit spoke to him in v26"Get up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza..." He didn't even know where he was going to end up! God told him to start walking down a road! How great is my God that He knew I needed to read this today!! Many times God's plan doesn't make sense in our brains. I would dare to say most of the time! Who wants to just start walking somewhere not knowing where they are going, how long it's going to take to get there, & who's going to be there?! This story is very much what is going on in my life right now. God just said, "Move." God said, "Go, start walking down this road..." Aaahh! God is so good to us! I love His Word! Here's where it gets tricky though. In the next verse, v27, it says, "So he got up and went..." Well, of course he did...You mean he didn't ask a million questions?! He didn't have to know where he was going?! If he needed to take some food to eat?! Who was going to be there?! You're telling me he didn't just argue with God saying, "Why do You want me to leave, I'm here preaching! I'm doing good...and I don't want to leave...things are going good for me here!"? Well, I guess that's why Phillip is in the Bible, and I'm not! God knows I have been asking Him the questions! "What about another job?" "What about the money?" "What about the store?" "What are people going to think about me?!" (because we all know that last one's so important, right?!)Phillip got up and went. The reason God told him to start walking was that God had a divine appointment waiting for Phillip to arrive. You should read the story, but what ends up happening is Phillip gets to tell an Ethiopian eunuch the whole story of Jesus. He ends up believing and was baptized that day!! God led Phillip to lead the stinkin prime minister to the Queen of Ethiopia to Jesus! Hello! Do you think that made an impact on that region?! Saul is trying to kill all the Christians in the region, and God is using Phillip to get the message of Jesus inside the Ethiopian government! I would say that was a pretty big calling!

God has a plan; a reason for everything He does. He is so amazing. He has so many great things He wants to use us to do, we just have to be quiet and listen! We have to listen! And when He says, "Go." We just have to. How could we not?! He wants to use us...little ole us! His plan...His glory...that's what it's about!