Monday, October 11, 2010

Confession 132: Surprised?

We are in the midst of the abundance portion of the study Faithful, Abundant and True by Kay Arthur, Priscilla Shirer and Beth Moore.  Priscilla Shirer (who may be my new favorite go-to Bible study gal!) made the point that not only is God able, but he also surprises us.  One of the conclusions I've come to over the years is that our cynical, post-modern notions of the world have pushed us to push God into a box.  We put limits to what God can do, as evidenced in our need to discover exactly how the world was made.  We put our hope in human beings to solve our problems and then get disappointed when they ultimately fail...ie, medical malpractice suits, snarly politicians and national gripe fests.  We forget, as Ephesians 1:19-20 tells us, that there is an "incomparably great power for us who believe.  That power is the same as the mighty strength God exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms."

 We serve a God who CAN and DOES in wonderfully miraculous and absolutely surprising ways!!  When I graduated from college 12 years ago I had my life planned out.  Yet, four years later I was moving away from everything I knew and loved to go to seminary (What!?) to chase this new calling God had put upon my life.  Little did I know that God had a magnificent plan far greater than what I could ever imagine.  The course of my life changed with that move in a way I could never have planned.  God not only surprised me, but he also showed me the richness of his abundance and blessing in following the road he laid out for me.  I'm not saying it's been all sunny days with the smell of roses, but it has been blessed.  And to think, I would have missed it all had I not let God out of the box!!

So, my question for you today is: Where has God surprised you?  When in your life have you been able to shout "God is ABLE!"?  I want to hear your stories.  I want to celebrate together our God who empowers us to do all things through Christ from whom we get our strength. 

Blessings and Peace,
Sara

2 comments:

  1. If I stop and take the time to notice, God surprises me every day!

    I'm surprised by the husband I've been blessed with. I'm surprised by the sky when it turns that crazy shade of orange in the morning. I'm surprised by the red leaves...are they this red every year? I'm surprised friends who never grow tired of listening.

    Yes, through all of these things God surprises me!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love your perspective of God surprising us when He works in our lives. I'm surprised I married a Pastor. If someone in high school would have told me that one day I'd marry a pastor I would have laughed. I never dreamed I'd have seven children or live in Wisconsin. I've been surprised by the concept of blogging and how fun it is and the treat of "meeting" new friends like you.

    ReplyDelete

My Family

My Family

My Family 2

My Family 2