Listening to HIM in 2010!

First and foremost I want to Thank the Lord for this past year in my life. I have learned somethings about my Savior that I have known in my head but now I know in my heart.

Jesus is such a loving and compassionate friend to me. I do believe that we serve a God that hates sin, and does judge sin, I believe he is the God of correction and that when his child messes up that he will spank them, but I have learned that his correction is not always the type of correction that we know or use as parents here on this earth. (We should definitely be more like him with our children) You know the goodness of God bringeth a man to repentance.

Romans 2 : 4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

I believe if he has to he will get rough, but I do know that he is a longsuffering God and a very loving God. To many times in my life I have been quick to pass judgement, I have been quick to respond to what I think God ought to do in a situation or how God ought to handle a situation, (because you know.....I have been saved for years and I know a little about God and who he is, so I think I know how he should handle things.) WOW! Have I been wrong! With all the many times I have messed up this past year, God has continually shown me his grace and his forgiveness. I have often had this mind set that God is up there just waiting for us to mess up so he can pull the hammer down on us, but I have learned that he is full of compassion, full of forgiveness, and full of love towards me. Oh, if I could be more like him.

This past year we have been totally at the mercy of our Lord. We have depended on him for our every need. We have been in his watchful care for this entire year. You say,,,We'll, yea, we all are!" Yes, I agree but so many times when we are working for a paycheck it is easy to think we can work things out for ourselves. We have the ability decide a few things on our own, for instance when that paycheck comes on Friday (because you know it is coming) you can kinda determine in your mind what you are going to pay and you can kinda plan ahead or budget if you will. It is easy to leave God out of that part of our lives, because we think we have the smarts to do so. Well, when you do not know when the next check is coming, it is hard to plan ahead, so you just have to lean on the Lord day by day (and check the mailbox). Which has been an awesome experience to see God supply your every need.

FOR EXAMPLE:
A couple of months ago we had a husband and wife family come through and visit our church, they are truck drivers and they travel the whole U.S. As most of you know me, I do not know a stranger and I enjoyed getting to know these Kindred Spirits. They were both so sweet and we just hit it off. The husband asked me that night if he could have our email so they could keep up on Mike's case and so they could pray for us. What a blessing! We started corresponding through email. I was thrilled to have people with a heart like them praying about Mike's case and about his health. It is nice to know people are really praying for you.
The week before Thanksgiving this blessed lady sent me an email asking me for my address and said she wanted to send me something. A week later while we were in Kansas she sent us a card with a $150.00 in it for a Thanksgiving feast but since the Lord had already supplied our feast in Kansas, I was thrilled to be able to pay our November car payment.
Last night after being out of town for the holidays our pastor's wife gave us another Christmas card from this precious couple. When we got home it had $100.00 check in it for Christmas.
WOW! Do you know why I say WOW? Cause Zac has to be in Bowling Greene this next week and we just paid the rest of the months bills and we were out of money and did not know where the gas money was going to come from to get him there for his ride back to college. Once again the Lord supplied the need just when we needed it.
God has shown us that he does not need to use people we know, he does not need to use the wealthy people of this world, he uses the way that brings him the most Glory.
We are closing this year out and can say that He has once again met our bills for the month of December and we had a great Christmas to boot! TO GOD BE THE GLORY GREAT THINGS HE HAS DONE!

As I enter into this new year, I want to be more like Christ, I want to be more understanding with people, I want to be more tolerable, I want to be full of love toward the lost world, I want people to see Jesus in me and most of all I want to allow my ear to be tuned toward my Father's voice so that when he wants to use me like he has used so many people over this past year that I too may be used to help meet someone else's need. Isn't that what our call is? How can God reach the lost or help someone in need, if he cannot use us?

Can you imagine if each of us were just sensitive to the Lord's voice?..............
"Hand them a tract."
"Tell them about me."
"Give them $20.00."
"Give that person a hug."
"Ask them to forgive you."

You may never know what need you may fulfill in someone's life by just listening for his voice.

DO YOU HEAR WHAT I HEAR?

Bless each and everyone of you for being a blessing to us this year and thank you so much for following me through this journey of learning about my Savior.

We are Forever His,

Rebecca