Lamp onto My Feet

Happy Friday Friends! Many of you have been waiting with great anticipation as I reveal what God is leading us to. It’s interesting how God works, how we envision this great answer to unfold right in front of our eyes. Yet God doesn’t always work in this capacity. Sometimes He unveils the steps little by little. Like a flashlight shining right in front of your feet. As Kyle and I have submitted our hearts fully to prayer, God has revealed to us one move we are to make and that’s my husband quitting his job! And no we don’t have another position lined up.

It’s slightly scary yet it’s a leap of faith we both feel God is impressing upon us. So we are going to do it! With this decision there is also much change that will follow. My husband makes a good living in his profession but with this job there has been a disconnect in how we can truly submit ourselves to a budget, to honoring God as well as our marriage.

By letting go of the things that create “stability,” by worldly standards, yet keeps us apart from truly living out a faithful walk, is where Kyle and I intentionally are rebuilding our foundation. By making this decision we both have had to take an emotional inventory discerning where in our hearts and actions that fall short of God’s desires. For me materialism has been my weakness, my downfall between experiencing all of God’s glory and true riches.

Growing up in a home that money was prioritized over all else, it was challenging to differentiate between reality and illusion. It presented a facade, a false identity I was able to hide behind to escape the heartaches of the world. As I have gotten older and separated myself from my family and these principals I grew up around; I have been shredded little by little of this falsehood. Yet the problem with growing up living behind a facade is as I uncover who God desires me to be, I can feel gipped at times. Confused as to why I don’t have this comfort or that luxury and as I give into this comparison game of my past to my present, I’m awe struck of how incredibly shallow and superficial I remain. The child I thought was so far from me isn’t far from me at all. And if I am going to be really honest, that little toddler will peek out of me in my current state.

God is using this season, in “my dessert” so to speak to refine me. To refine my priorities. To get me to submit fully to the will of God. It’s within this test of faithfulness to live without the things of this world, so that my husband and I can flourish on a tight monetary budget. It’s saying no to this world over and over and over again and saying Yes to God!

See the test? God has tested those in the Bible and He is doing it again on this earth in this day and age. He tested Moses in the desert to follow His commands full heartedly as he led the Israleites out of Egypt. He tested Joseph who was a little proud but was oh so faithful to God despite his hardships. From his brothers selling him to the Egyptians, to Joseph gaining success to only lose it, to being cast down in a prison cell, all to be the vessel God used to bring providence to a bleak nation. It’s in submitting to God’s ultimate authority that something truly transformational will follow!

I do not know what the next step will be in terms of my husbands career or our success. But can I tell you how extremely excited I am to live fully in step within the word of God.  How freeing and enjoyable life is going to be! For it says in Matthew 6:24, “ No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

As we have made these inventories I’d like to take a moment and challenge you to look inwardly at yourself. Identify where in your life you are allowing worldly desires to overshadow God’s word. “But your iniquities have made a seperation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.” (Isaiah 53:6) For when we turn our eyes away from God, He cannot fully bless what is not His.

Friends I am excited to hear God and to allow Him to come into our family fully to make it His! For He is a great God. I am honored to turn in the keys of our life to the superior who can far out due any accomplishment my husband and I have tried to build up over the past 4 years! For in Him there is truth and life so let’s get started on this demo and make it into the masterpiece He has envisioned from the start!

Hugs,

Julie Black