Running to God

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Miranda Hawk a former student and friend of mine shared a testimony of how God got her attention last year. I want to share it with you.

The Lord opened my eyes to a few simple truths this past year with the loss of our daughter, Briley. He allows things to happen to cause us to be broken, bring us back to His heart and bring Glory to His name. Even though I grew up as a pastor’s daughter and have known, loved and served the Lord my entire life, I didn’t’ t realize that I really didn’t have as deep of a relationship with the Lord as I thought. The days following Briley’s death, I began to seek Him like never before, not because I wanted answers to the question “why” but because I needed His strength. One of the scriptures the Lord spoke to me through a friend was:

 Hosea 2:14-16 14
“But then I will win her back once again.
I will lead her into the desert
and speak tenderly to her there.
I will return her vineyards to her
and transform the Valley of Trouble into a gateway of hope.
She will give herself to me there,
as she did long ago when she was young,
when I freed her from her captivity in Egypt.
When that day comes,” says the Lord,
“you will call me ‘my husband’
instead of ‘my master.’

I realized that in my brokenness and devastation I had to choose to press in to Him so that He could be glorified. The Lord carried me and still is carrying me through the grief but I hear His heart and I know His heart now like never before. There is a oneness with my Father that has been birthed out of my brokenness and my obedience to press through. Believe me it’s by no means an easy choice, but it is a choice I have made and continued to make daily.
Be encouraged! We do not always need to know the answers to the questions “why.” It could just be another opportunity the Lord has given us to have the option to allow Him to show Himself strong and us to turn and glorify Him.

I am always amazed when God uses situation and circumstances to get our attention and deepen our walk with Him. It takes strong Christian Character to seek God when life looks so bad. It is easy to fall into the blame game and question God. Bad situations give us the opportunity to see what is in us. Sometimes we come through with more strength and sometimes we come through needing to repent, because we took a bad situation and made it worse.

In Numbers 20 Moses took a bad situation of the Israelite’s grumbling and complaining about no water and made it worse when he let his anger get the best of him and didn’t follow God’s instructions. God took the Promised Land away from his future. There are blessings to those who choose God’s Glory over their emotions.

Join me in taking some time to think about how we handle tough situations. Enjoy your week and I will be back next week with more.