Hey fellow movers! I had mentioned in the promise from last week that I had a lot of really cool stuff happening in my life, but didn't have time to completely explain it all at the moment. Well I have time now! God is so outstandingly GREAT! Now even if I had just been diagnosed with some life threatening disease and lost everything I have, this would still be the truth. God is exactly who He is regardless of our circumstances. There are just those times when the blessings fall and you can't help but look up to the heavens and tell Him, "Really God? You know that I don't deserve any of this and you still just keep heaping it on!" The past few weeks have been like this for me.
As some of you know I have been really struggling with my career path lately. I had a teaching job I was interviewing for last year that I thought was a sure thing and it completely fell through. It was a very confusing time of me asking God what He wanted me to do and God not really answering.
I was very blessed to be able to work a full time construction job with a great friend, but I knew that construction wasn't what I was supposed to do for the rest of my life. I prayed and prayed and prayed that God would just tell me what He wanted me to do. If it was construction, I would be the best construction worker in the world. If He called me to go back to school, I'd study my tail off to be the best. If He wanted me to go into ministry, I was ready for that too.
Instead of answers though, I just got silence.
I pushed on though. I clung tighter than ever to God's promises. I knew that He had a plan for me, and as frustrating as it was to not be let in on what that plan was, I had resolved to let His plan take shape and just be prepared when it finally started moving.
May 6 was when it started moving. The exact same day that I wrote the promise we moved on from Romans 8. Exactly four hours after I posted it actually. Funny that the Romans 8 promise was all about victory in Christ, because it started off a string of huge victories in my life...all because Jesus has already won the victory.
Four hours after the post I got a phone call from the Principal at Lakota High School to inform me that they wanted me to be their new High School English teacher. Huge victory! It gets better though. They wanted me to start that Friday! They were even willing to forgo the substitute teacher pay to go ahead and start me on my salary schedule! Huge victory! That's not something that just happens all the time. That's something that happens when we trust in God to keep His promises to us!
On top of all this, there have been a multitude of supplemental positions I have been offered, both at the High School and outside of it. I have literally gone from wondering what I was going to do with my life, to having to be very selective with what I want to do because God has blessed me with so many potential paths to choose from. I told some of my friends that I feel like I am drowning in God's blessings right now. It's a great feeling after going through the desert.
Now let me get one thing straight...I am not; in any way, shape or form; tooting my own horn here. "Well," in my most snotty, arrogant voice, "the only reason this all happened is because I am so great and never gave up on God. I never even doubted for a minute that He was going to do something totally awesome for me because I'm totally awesome." Not how it is at all.
I don't think a day went by that I wasn't frustrated that God wasn't answering me. I had questions all the time. I had thoughts that I constantly had to fight back that God had forgotten about me. I was convinced that my blessings weren't going to come on this side of heaven. This isn't about how awesome I am. I didn't do anything to deserve any of this! Jesus did it all! He is the One that deserves all of the blessings that I got. And I am the One that deserves all of the punishment that He got.
That's the way these promises work though. They are incredibly lopsided in our favor. All we have to do is cling to Him who first loved us. I read something great in one of my devotionals this morning that is simply too good not to post. It was a devotion from Joseph Prince called, Destined to Reign. It talks about John 15:5, how we are branches in the vine, who is Christ. In it Prince says that the devil "wants you to focus on your condition instead of your position in Christ." I absolutely love that!
We get so caught up in the moment of our condition that we forget the most important factor - our position in Christ. He has already won the victory, and just like John 15:5 promises, if we abide in Him, we position ourselves to bear good fruit for Him. There is no other option. When we abide in Him, when we cling to Jesus Christ, the only thing we can do is bear good fruit...the only thing we can do is be victorious!
So focus on your position...not your condition. If you make sure you are positioned in the True Vine, you cannot be anything but victorious! He did it for me; He will do it for you. Just cling to those promises!
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