Embraced by Father God

I love the way my Father loves me and loves to surprise me! I remember receiving a gift from my parents as a young teenager. We were money-poor and only received gifts at Christmas and birthdays. Upon receiving the gift, I started crying. I asked my parents if I was given the gift because I was dying. I had been dealing with a severe disease and thought the gift would only be given if I was close to death. My parents explained they gave it because they thought I would like it. There was no other reason. Of course, there was another reason - their love! Those kind of surprise gifts are what I have come to expect from my Father! He loves to surprise me and to delight me. It's not normally with "things" but with people and His workings. Yesterday, I saw a friend I hadn't seen in a few years. She has always been an encourager and an intecessor and she was one of God's love gifts yesterday. Leaving a store, I heard my name being called several times. As I found the source of the call, she gestered for me to come over to see her first grandchild. Being a friend and a grandmother, I was quick to comply because I love grandbabies! That baby was used as a connection yesterday for his nana and me. As we stood chatting and catching up on each other's lives, I shared with her some things God is doing in me and she, intercessor that she is, started praying for me right there on the sidewalk in front of the store. Everything she prayed was a confirmation of what my husband and I had prayed together that morning! She had no idea until the "amen" of how she had been used. As I shared with her what God had spoken to us and the requests we had made, we were both rejoicing and praising the Only One who is able to do that! What an extraordinary and loving Daddy we have who loves to pour out His love on us all the time -not just when we're dying! How can we not love Him Who loves us so completely and so personally! Fall in love with Him all over again if your love has grown cold and start enjoying the fresh rain of His love in your life!

Blessed and Highly Favored

I picked up a book at Ross about a month ago because it looked interesting and was a great price. GOD'S TROPHY WOMEN by Jacqueline Jakes, T.D. Jakes' older sister, is certainly interesting and a great value! She relates the story of Mary, the mother of Jesus, who was proclaimed to be blessed and highly favored by God and then had to endure pregnancy at a young age, marry an older man who doubted her word amid a society that was intolerant of sexual impurity! She then heard the accusations against that son and endured His crucifixion, all the while being considered "blessed and highly favored" by God! This book is forcing me to think long and hard about my willingness to be fashioned into a "trophy woman" for God through the circumstances, trials and relationships that He has used and is using to achieve His plan for me. I trust Him to continue to do what needs to be done in me as I follow His leading through the windows and doors of my future. He has used everything in my past to help lead me to this season of my life. He has protected me, healed me, chastised me, enabled me, encouraged me, forgiven me and loved me while maturing me into a woman whose foremost passion is to glorify Him in my life! That is the measure of a "trophy woman" of God and I am stepping forward, on His red carpet, to receive my place in His Kingdom script! It is truly a wild ride and a calm walk - it's my life and it's good!