2 Corinthians 12:9

God has a cool way of showing us that no matter what we have or haven’t done, and no matter the circumstances, He loves us, and we can’t mess up His plan, we don’t have the power to do that. Sure, we can cause detours by choosing disobedience and our plans over His, but He has ultimate power and authority over everything and nothing we do in our mortal human powers will change that.

A month or two ago, I was reading 1 Samuel 28, and in this chapter, King Saul had set up camp at Gilboa but then he saw the Philistine army and was filled with fear because of the size of the army. Verse 6 says, “He asked the Lord what He should do, but the Lord refused to answer him, either by dreams or sacred lots or by the prophets.” Later in the chapter, Saul goes to find a medium (which he had banned in Israel) to speak with Samuel who had passed. Long story short, Samuel answers him by saying, “Why ask me since the Lord has left you and become your enemy?” (v. 16). He goes onto say that because of Saul’s disobedience he has essentially forfeited the throne and God has removed His hand from his life, what a scary place to be in. Satan has a funny way of twisting things, including scripture, so for me after reading that, he had convinced me that I had been disobedient to God, so He didn’t want me anymore and He wasn’t going to use me. I believed that too, because I felt that even though I was finally obedient how God has asked me to be, I wasn’t hearing His voice or what He wanted for me next, and I was afraid that He had removed His hand off my life and was no longer going to use me.

But God. He has been working behind the scenes this whole time and had never left me, even when I turned away from Him. Today, I was talking with one of my friends at FGCU about the race and she said that ever since I had said I was going on the race she had felt something inside of her to do it too. That gave me full body chills because I had no clue that what I had said or was doing was affecting her in any way. This showed me two things, one, it was a testament to the Lord’s faithfulness. Even though I had caused detours in the plan and even though it felt like I couldn’t be used anymore, God was doing something in her and used me as a vessel which I think is one of the coolest things ever. Two, it showed me that our actions as Christians truly matter and sometimes, we can be the only piece of Jesus that people see. I’ve always thought that since I’m not a super outgoing person, people aren’t watching or caring about what I do, but I was wrong about that one. People are going to be watching me and other Christians, because they want to see if our actions match what we preach. This showed me the importance of loving like Jesus even when you think no one is watching, because someone probably is.

The grace of God never fails, no matter the circumstance we find ourselves in, even then His grace is sufficient. He can still use you; you just have to be willing and open to what He has even if you don’t see it all planned out. I was disobedient and should’ve gone on the race in September, but even though I didn’t go then, God still chose to use me in different ways. He shows me time and time again that His grace is sufficient.

Thank you for taking the time to read on what God is doing in my life, see you in 41 days Gainesville!!!