Here is what I know that I know that I know: God is real! So. Very. Real.

I’ll be honest, on days when I’m busy doing my own thing, I have faith that God is there, but my world is my focus. It seems that I’m far away from Him. But on days when I actually answer Him in complete obedience, His presence is so tangible…there is no way I could deny Him! In fact, the reality of Him overshadows everything.

Yesterday was one of those incredible, faith building days! I actually started the day feeling a little nervous. See, a friend had texted me about a single mom from our church who needed help. This single mom had just suffered 2 mini strokes, and is raising four adopted children with special needs. She was home from the hospital but, of course, feeling weak. In her own words, “I need a referee for my children!” Oh dear. She warned me that her kids had issues with anger and even violence. Their birth mom had been a drug addict and they suffer from Reactive Attachment Disorder. This situation totally intimidated me. But as unqualified as I felt to help, I knew that God wanted me to go. I prayed that somehow I could be of some use to this family, “God, please give me an opportunity to help them feel your love.”  

The plan was for me to go to their home after school to help with dinner, chores and general nighttime routines. But earlier in the day a few significant things happened: First of all, I started feeling sick with body aches, a sore throat and sore ears. I prayed and asked God if this meant that I shouldn’t go…and my answer came from Luke 22, the passage about Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. The Holy Spirit reminded me that when Jesus was preparing to go to the cross, He was so anguished that his sweat became like drops of blood. Although what I was facing was nothing compared to what Jesus faced, I understand that when we are called to do something hard, our body reacts to the stress of it.  But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t proceed. If we are obedient, we will have peace (down deep) knowing that we are smack dab in the middle of God’s will. And even though my body was getting stressed, I still had that deep down peace, because I knew He had told me to go.

True Peace is walking in obedience to God.

The second significant thing that happened was God put a friend of mine, that I rarely get to see, very heavily on my heart. He prompted me to pull over from driving to text her a simple message: “You have been on my mind and heart. I’m praying for you, and I love you.”

Her reply blew me away: “This text ministers to me so much!!! My heart and Spirit started praying yesterday that he would prepare your heart to pray for me. He told me to have you pray for me! Wow. Then I received your message- God is moving powerfully! Just with your prompt response to hear Him and Him hearing my cry brings me to my knees. What a mighty God we serve!”

Whoa. See what I mean? He was making it abundantly clear that HE IS REAL and with us in a tangible way!  

Then the third significant thing occurred: as I was heading to the single mom and family’s house, I needed gas so I pulled into White Oak Station. While I was waiting at the pump, a huge, kind of rough and tough looking man walked toward me and gave me a friendly smile.  He said, “You know God loves you, right?”  I couldn’t help but get a big grin on my face! I answered, “Yes totally for sure!”  (Sometimes when I’m giddy  valley girl slang just comes out of me) HA!  But seriously, I felt God’s presence with me so strongly, and I was ready to do what I needed to do!

God not only gave me opportunities to show His love to this amazing single mom, who quite frankly has been through hell, but to each of her four precious children. I was only there for three hours, and I saw some disturbing behavior, but I was never afraid.  The entire time I felt God’s presence. God enabled me to speak blessings into each family member, and He led me to pray with every step I took around their home and through the rooms. I bet I said the name of Jesus 100 times! I will continue to pray and show support…because that’s what the Lord asked me to do. My fears of inadequacy and ineptness didn’t really matter. God’s presence and guidance was more than enough! Instead of asking, “But what can I do?” I realized I should be saying, “God do what You do, through me!”

He will never leave us or forsake us. -Hebrews 13:6

I believe in encouragement. God encourages us and He wants us to encourage each other. Think about it, the word “encourage” means to give courage. I have found that being obedient to God can be terrifying at first, but once into it, I have never felt more empowered and at peace in my life! There really is NOTHING that compares to His presence with us! What about you? Have you experienced times with God when everything else seemed to fade? I would love to hear your comments!

Please share this if it was encouraging to you 🙂 You never know who may need it today! God bless you!!