"Often we ask Him to bless us and make our lives more fruitful-our families, our businesses, our finances. But rarely do we like the pruning process we must endure for our prayers to be answered."
And since God doesn't ever like something I need to hear slip by me....he told me TWICE! This week Braydon is studying the story of Noah's Ark. Today we watched "Evan Almighty" with Steve Carrell which is a modern day twist on the story but still gives the basic story line and focuses on the real meaning of the story...Being faithful to what GOD says even when everything you can SEE with your eyes says something different. How is that for a faith-risk? Man, something inside of me just silently wished he won't give me a faith-risk that big to tackle in this thrity days! LOL.
Anyhow....in the movie, while "Evan"(modern day Noah)is following GOD's instruction because at this point every thread of his being just has to...his wife on the other hand is thinking..."ok, he is losing it...he is embarrassing....he is ruining our lives, he's gonna lose his job, our house, etc." And when she shares how she feels with a waiter in a restaurant, GOD speaks through him when he says,
"It sounds like an opportunity to me. When you ask God for more patience, He doesn't bless you with more patience-he gives you more situations to be patient in. When you ask God for more courage, He doesn't instantly give you more courage-he gives you more chances to be couragous. And when you ask God for a closer more loving family, he doesn't give you warm and fuzzy feelings right then-but gives you opportunities to love each other."
Ah yes, pruning. When we ask, we always receive, but not in the way we think we should, but in the way that produces more and better quality fruit!
So what is it you have asked God for that you've expected him to magically fix for you and didn't want to go through the pruning process? Are you in the pruning process now?
For us, we are in the pruning process with our finances. We asked GOD for more, we prayed... "by whatever means necessary Lord help us to get out of debt so that we can be better stewards and serve you!" He answered us LOUD AND CLEAR. If you ever want to know what God has done there...Just ask! We are still in the process but feel like we are nearing the end of it. And He has truly shaped our tree. We are the branches and He is the vine, and we should soon be producing fruit!
MOMENTS FROM TODAY THAT I DEFINETLY WOULD NOT MISS IF I ONLY HAD "ONE MONTH TO LIVE"...JACOBY AND BRAYDON PLAYING IN THE RAIN AND DEACON JUST BEING CUTE!!! ENJOY!!!
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