Journey4Jesus
Praying Gods Word in all areas of life… The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
For such a time as this…
It’s such a unique opportunity to be able to look backwards through the lens of time, and see how God has answered those difficult questions that we wrestled so deeply with 2 1/2 years earlier. When I wrote these words in my prayer journal, they were simply raw emotions as I watched everything around me crumble.
I had no idea what God had planned for us, yet in the scariest and most uncertain times of our life, we truly sensed He was doing something.
As like so many believers, we were really good at coasting along. We Loved God, we loved our Salvation through Christ, we were very thankful for the gift of Grace, because we definitely knew how much we needed that… Yet, we were not “Living” for Christ.
Those words used to sound too Holy. Only Pastors & missionaries really lived FOR Jesus. The rest of us just tried to do our best managing life in this world without being too terrible. Don’t get me wrong, we loved our Church and we loved serving Jesus in prayer ministry, I even began to love reading His Word, and continually wanted to learn more, but Living for Christ… that was a different ball game all together.
For those of my friends who have been journeying with me on this blog, by now you will be aware of so many of our struggles we were battling through. We felt like our lives were being peeling back like an onion, exposing each new layer of shame and failure to the world. (If you’re new to the blog, I would encourage you to go to my home page and see how and why this started).
Looking back now, I see so many other things… I see how God was “setting us apart” for something else. How He was breaking our chains that kept us trapped and stuck. God had opened our hearts to the reality of the majority of the world through mission trips, and although we didn’t know what He was doing, we knew we were being changed. In fact we were being Unencombered!
This was the word that the Holy Spirit whispered to Mike, we didn’t even know what it really meant so of course we checked out the definition:
Journal Entry: #40
(This was the first time I heard the Holy Spirit whisper the words to my heart… “Journey for Jesus”)
Heavenly Father,
Thank you for your Word. Your Word reminds me that I have all the tools I need through You, to fight the enemy. How easy it is to forget, and allow him a foothold in my mind. Before I know it, I am believing his lies…his fear mongering, but Fear…He is a liar.
Thank you for equipping me to fight this battle in the spiritual realm, before the attacks come into the physical one. Help me Lord to put on YOUR full armour and protect me in my vulnerabilities.
Lord, I pray for the empowering of Your Holy Spirit. Your Word says that Your Spirit will ‘teach us’ and ‘show us the way’. We seek Your confirmation Lord in the things we are to do. We sense You have a bigger plan for us…in the trailer… on the move… but we can’t see how we can serve or how we can survive.
If this is indeed Your plan, and You are asking us to obey… we simply ask that You would show us that we are on the right track. We’ve been led astray by our own desires far too often and don’t want to simply be running from our mistakes.
I keep remembering Your command to your disciples, to go and take nothing with them, so as they were to fully trust in Your provision for them. I think back to the word “release”. When it felt like you were peeling us like an onion, removing layers off of us – Your Spirit gave me the word “release”. While I was feeling in my human body that I was being peeled back and exposed, in reality You were releasing me for something more.
You were releasing us from the things that in actuality were keeping us stuck… keeping us here… keeping us in this pattern of life we had created. I can see over the last five years, how You have prepared us… ALL You have taught us… how You have equipped us… so it’s not unfathomable that You would now choose to SEND us.
What I can’t see is “how will we work? we don’t need a lot to survive but we do need some, how will we find that income? It’s crazy, scary and exciting to think You could be asking us to go… that You could be calling us onto this Jesus Journey. Lord, You know our hearts, there is nothing we want more than to use this last portion of this life serving You.
Forgive me Lord for questioning, I don’t want to second guess, but we’ve made so many mistakes in our life. I want to believe You have redeemed us for “such a time as this”, but I also don’t want to foolishly go ahead of You.
Would You please confirm this is Your calling to us and not just a plan of our own making. “Speak Lord, Your sevants are listening”. Where You lead us we will follow. All we have, we surrender daily to You Lord. Use us for Your Glory and Your Kingdom. Prepare us and equipped us for whatever You are calling us to do.
As Your sheep we don’t see the path well Lord, but we know Your voice and we will follow you… Thank you Lord for whatever opportunities that lay before us… we are Your servants.
In Jesus name ❤️ Amen
My Final Thoughts & Encouragement:
Friends, I don’t know what your struggles are today… what journey of life you currently find yourself on, but there are a few things I know with absolute certainty; Jesus is calling for you to follow Him. There is a reason you have found yourself on this blog today. Jesus has been preparing for our paths to meet.
Maybe you, are like I was… coasting along, believing that I was living a quiet life and that God didn’t really need me. I’m here to tell you “that’s s lie”, We were created by God and FOR God.
Maybe, you think you have done too many wrongs… no way they could be made right. Another lie. God pulled me out of the pit of terrible choices. The pit of my own making that had no ladder out… but He reached down and rescued me from myself.
And maybe, like me you think you have nothing to offer… that Living for Him is for holier people… another lie. God has a plan and a journey for your life. In fact He created you with that plan and purpose in mind before you were even born. Just start trusting in His plan and He will start revealing it to you.
As for myself; I am now three years in the future from when I wrote this journal entry and prayer. I can look back and see so clearly how God has been laying out the path for our lives and how he has chosen to redeem and use us for His Glory.
Mike and I are now serving in full time ministry, we are not Pastors or missionaries, but we are people placed into a community of hurt, where we can be the light and show the Love of Jesus to any who come along our path.
We are both in the last half our our life… no idea what that means other than we’ve both crossed the half century mark, and it is here … it took us that long to be ready to be used by God. He doesn’t want to be just your Saviour (although He wants that very much), and He doesn’t just want to be your friend (yup, He wants that too… what He really wants is to be your Lord.
The problem is, we hear this term but we really don’t acknowledge what it means. The dictionary defines Lord this way ,”someone or something having power, authority, or influence; a master or ruler.” Having Power and Authority over our lives. The one we look to for advice and the one we aim to please and receive praise from.
For many many years, I held many other things a lord over my life; my desires, my money, a nice house, nice clothes, great food, good wine… this list could go on forever. None of these things are bad in and of themselves, but if they rule you… they are lords of your life.
That throne is designed for Jesus only. His plans are good, His ways are true… I grieved as these mini lords were being removed from my life, because I did not yet understand the freedom that would come. Many people think that following Jesus path is just too hard, this my friend is another lie… His path is actually very simple. Love God… Love people….everything else follows.
Blessings, Janet ❤️Journey4Jesus
Do you know Jesus ? He’s waiting for you… ( click the link to learn more)
f this benefited you in any way, I’d love to hear from you and I would be thrilled if you would share or invite more people to be encouraged. }
Journey4Jesus 
Such encouraging words for me to read today!! Thank you so much Janet for continuing to blog your journey!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for journeying with me Connie ♥️🙏🏼
LikeLike