A Wing and a Prayer

"Let me find refuge and trust in the shelter of Your wings." Psalm 61:4b (Amp)

Today I'm asking God to help me find shelter under His wings. I'm being stretched to believe I can rest in God's sovereignty and choose inactivity (on my part). Instead of working on something I need to do, God's challenging me pray instead...to be still, talk to Him and trust He is working when I am not. This is where believing God and doubting play tug-o-war. When a deadline and responsibility hangs over my head and something keeps me from moving toward it, it makes me...

Doubt I can get it done.
Doubt I heard God right.
Doubt God's perfect plans and timing.
Doubt my ability to follow through.

Satan wants us to doubt ourselves
But God wants us to believe HIM and trust Him! This is where we learn to live in the power of HIS promises. It's the only way to live beyond the shadow of our doubts as we walk forward or rest in faith. But it's hard when you're having a bad day. Like the one one that just culminated with a run-away dog this afternoon, and me crying 'cause I didn't think I'd find her since she didn't have her tags on her new collar.

I drove around my neighborhood and surrounding area with my windows down crying out, "Daaaaaaaaisy, Daiseeeeey!" And saying, "God, please don't let this happen. Not today. Not Daisy. You know she'll run forever. She's a beagle whose nose will lead her to SC and she won't even know she left home. This is the last thing I need today. Pleeeaase help me find her."

Finally a man who lives near us brought her home while I was out looking for her. He told mom it took a piece of bologna to get Daisy to come to him. I could've strangled that bologna-eating dog when I got home. But she was smiling and jumping on me like she'd gotten back from a friends house.

I know, life happens! But I sure do wish it would coordinate itself with my needs and deadlines. Today was a writing day and now my brain feels like a sledge hammer is pounding on it. Why do things like this happen on the days I block out time to write my book? Seriously. And can I be honest with you? It's frustrating. I can't write every day so when I can, I really need to.

Sometimes it feels like I am living in the middle of impossible.

So what do we do in the middle of impossible? I am still trying to figure that out but the past several months have given me lots of opportunities to try a few things. First, I am learning to cling to the promise- With God all things are possible! Then I am learning to ask Him to give me a very specific "word" (a promise or a principle) from His Word to act on and put my trust in. Then I look for what next step He wants me to take.

For example, before all this craziness happened today, I was stressing a little about my book deadline and blocking out time to write until I meet it. This weekend He gave me 2 Timothy 1:12b, "For I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that He is able to guard what I've entrusted to Him for that day."

Then today He challenged me (gave me the opportunity) to walk it out: to be convinced that He is able to guard what I've entrusted to Him for this day. For me it means that I am entrusting Him with the chapter I feel like I should be writing, and the words that are now stuck inside my pounding head.

As far as a step to take, the Holy Spirit reminded again today that God's been nudging me to for a while to ask friends to pray for me and the message of "A Confident Heart" and the women who will read it - until it's written. He's reminded me that the enemy is not happy about what God is up to on the pages of this book and that he will do all he can to stop me.

So, today I am walking out 2 Tim 1:12, and then taking the next step of obedience by asking some friends to pray with me.

Would you'd like to be part of the "Confident Heart" prayer team?
I think it'd be so wonderful to seek Christ' heart with you and ask Him together to make Himself famous through this book. Leah (my assistant and dear friend) and I are excited to see who God will gather with us. We'll collect names/emails to send requests and we'll also be praying for them too! To join us, leave a comment below with your email address and we'll send you updates, probably once a week. (Or email aconfidentheart@gmail.com with "Prayer Team" in the subject line.)

Now that I've written all of this, I have a feeling God is writing a chapter right here in the middle of impossible. I'd love to know if you ever feel like you are living in the middle of impossible? What are some promises you cling to and some steps you take to help you get out of that hard place?

I love to hear from you! (and pray for you, too)

***********************************************

UPDATE: Thank you so much for blessing me with your words of affirmation, ideas, suggestions and perspectives for the subtitle of "A Confident Heart." It was the best feedback I could have gotten!! You make me want to write this book even when it gets hard! Random integer chose Stephanie Pace as the winner of the $20 giftcard. So sorry it took me a day to count the names and get it posted. Congratulations Stephanie!