I’m so excited to hear from our second blogger, Mary Miller, this week.  She along with Nicole Sizemore will be joining me every other week, sharing their journey with all of us.  I hope you will be encouraged and challenged as I am from their thoughts and insights. I’m excited to see how God will use the gifts He has given them both.

So…let’s ponder together.

The other morning I was spending time with the Lord.  It was one of those days when I was restless and had trouble focusing on my devotional.  I think I replayed the darn thing four times!  Replay you ask? Yep.  I’m an auditory kind if girl.

Anyhow, I made it through the devotional and picked up where I left off in Mark.  I again was super distracted. I prayed for God to show me something, to lead me, calm me down and help me to better understand scripture.  Then Judges 10 and 11 popped into my head.  I looked up these scriptures and listened (yep Audio Bible too).  The cliff notes, or what struck me, is that basically this guy, Jephthah, sacrifices his daughter after making a deal with God.  Unlike the story of Abraham and Isaac this guy really did kill her.  So I’m sitting there more confused then I was before I prayed.  This left me saying to God “Huh?”.  But since God has been growing me in faith and trust in Him I decided to just pray again. But this time I prayed not for answers but prayed an affirmation that God is love.  I rested in that.

Suddenly God showed me another passage Proverbs 3:4 “So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man”. This made me smile because it felt like God was blessing me for trusting in Him in the midst of my confusion.  Then Proverbs 17:3 popped in my head “The crucible is for silver and the furnace for gold and The Lord tests hearts”.  Then I said aha!  God doesn’t create confusion but He can use it to bring clarity.  But for this to happen we must Trust Him and believe He is good.

That day I was reminded that God is unconventional.  Over this past year I have given up trying to figure Him out because I never will.  Some days he reveals things to me and I am grateful.  And others, well my belief that He is Love, knows more than me and is looking out for my heart is enough.  And when I believe and let go of the answers I think I should have or the way I think things should be He often shows up in a still small voice saying “Read Judges 10 and 11”.  Often He uses these situations to test my heart.  The times I give up needing to know are the times He rewards we with revelation.

How glorious is our God? Can I get an Amen?  I challenge you today to pray through any confusion with the lover of your soul.  Even when things seem odd or off know that He is sovereign, in charge and once you let go He may just share with you what He’s doing.

M.M.