Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by Christine Caine from her book, Unexpected: Leave Fear Behind, Move Forward in Faith, Embrace the Adventure (p. 11). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) But oh, we try to do both, don’t we? Christine says, “Whiplashed and then immobilized by something we never expected, we end up stuck in a place we never wanted to be. Stuck in a place where our world shrinks and we hide inside of it, living a story far smaller than God intends. Forfeiting the future that could have been. The destiny we were born to live.” She goes on, “We’ve all been there, tempted to pull back and hide when we were wounded, disappointed, or disillusioned. When we faced failure or endured another heartache. When we suffered a loss that was more than we felt we could bear. When we made promises to ourselves that we’d never let such pain happen to us again. But we can’t keep those kinds of promises. Not if we want to step into all of God’

A thought by Bob Goff from his book, Everybody, Always: Becoming Love in a World Full of Setbacks and Difficult People ( p. 138). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)   And each one of us has experienced times where we have felt confused and stationary, haven't we? Bob goes on, “We shouldn’t be surprised when we don’t understand what a God who says He surpasses all understanding is doing. God doesn’t want us to get stuck scratching our heads or overanalyzing our circumstances.   He doesn’t send in all the plays to get us out of our funk and He doesn’t carpet-bomb us with instructions about what to do next.   Instead, He continues to be with us.   He’s not entirely silent when He is either.   He’s sent us books about Him and has included a lot of letters, and He’s sent us friends too.   He’s given us success and failures – plenty of both.” Bob says, “When we dream up something where the outcome seems uncertain

A thought by Bob Goff from his book, Everybody, Always: Becoming Love in a World Full of Setbacks and Difficult People ( p. 136). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)   I know I have wanted that at different times in my life. Bob continues the thought by saying, “Maybe they mean they want to hear His audible voice. I’m not sure. I don’t think literally hearing something is what most of us are after. What we actually want is that extra nudge of confidence from God and the opportunity to move forward courageously to do those things we already know how to do. What a shame it would be if we were waiting for God to say something while He’s been waiting on us to do something. He speaks to me the loudest on the way. Simply put, if we want more faith, we need to do more stuff.” He goes on, “Part of me really understands people’s hesitation. There have been times when I wanted to hear God’s voice—particularly when somethi