God Is SO Good!

"Then he added, “Pay close attention to what you hear. The closer you listen, the more understanding you will be given—and you will receive even more." Mark 4:24 (NLT)

"For God speaks again and again,
though people do not recognize it." Job 33:14

I have learned so much in the last few days, that I think I'm still fully digesting all that God had to share with me. I will probably be piecing out a lot of it for months- and hopefully sharing what comes to the forefront of my mind. But this past weekend, spending it in The Glory just makes me want more! I am literally exhausted today! My body hurts in various places, I slept almost two hours later than I normally do, and I'm just lacking much motivation for doing anything. Yet if there was another service going on today at church, I would be at the door an hour early, I am just so hungry for more! And I'm hungry for the day it doesn't stop!

What I want to share with you this morning is a story about listening to God. Do you ever have those random ideas pop into your head? Something unexpected, and you wonder where the thought came from? Often times, that's from God. One of the things about being on the worship team at church is that I get the opportunity to do a lot of people watching. While I may not personally meet many of the people who come to our church for a conference weekend, I do feel like they're my family- I see them as they worship. I see them as their faces light up with joy, and I see them as some of them bare their sorrow. I often find myself praying blessings and joy over those ones. This weekend though, there was one person that caught my attention in a different way. I saw this person, and I instantly thought that I needed to give them money. Specifically, I needed to give this person $40. I thought on this thought for a minute, and thought about how much fun it would actually be to just bless someone with an unexpected gift of money. But then, I kind of dismissed the idea- I had no cash on me at the time, Andy had no cash either. I also kind of filed the idea away though, and thought to myself that if I went somewhere where there was an ATM, I would try and remember to get some cash.

Well wouldn't you know, as the weekend went on, and each session came and went, I felt more and more like I needed to give this person money! And finally, after the Saturday morning session, after feeling it so strongly earlier in the day, I purposed to find an ATM on our lunch break and take out the cash I needed.

Except that I was too late. That person had left to go home after the morning session. I felt so awful! I felt like I personally was responsible for robbing this person of a blessing that God had told me to give two days ago, and I so wished I would have just acted sooner. So instead, I gave the money to the kids to put in the offering. And then I prayed. And I prayed kinda hard, and I really apologized to God for not listening, because by that point, I knew that it was the Holy Spirit who put that idea of a gift of money into my head. And I prayed that God would bless that person anyway, despite my inability to act, and I also prayed that God would bring that person back for the next conference, so I could follow through on blessing them. I also prayed that God would not give up on me, and I totally prayed that He would give me another chance. What I didn't expect though was that the second chance would come right away and it would be as loud and crystal clear as it was.

Because that initial random idea I'd had to give a person $40 was nothing compared to how it felt the second time. I felt like my brain was going to explode when the second idea came to mind- I knew exactly who it was supposed to go to, and it was also much more than $40. There was also much more than this one time gift of money... I knew in my very heart that God wanted Andy and I to begin giving to this person on a regular basis. How crazy is that? Who does that? I mean really, think about it, we make monthly payments to pay bills, pay utilities, buy necessities, or pay someone for their services- you don't just randomly decide to give someone a monthly amount of money. But apparently we are going to do just that. *Insert huge grin here!*

Let me tell you how this one played out. We were at the tail end of worship when this exploding idea came into my head, and I tell you, we couldn't wrap it up fast enough. I made a beeline for Andy, told him what was up, got the okay, and literally ran to my purse. I could not write that check fast enough, and then I went to give it to the person that God laid on my heart. When I told them what we were going to do, I thought it was going to be an unexpected blessing to them... or was it? They lit up, and told me that they had been praying to God for the EXACT AMOUNT that my check was written for. We both were so excited at this turn of events! And I was beyond humbled that God used me- so quickly after I'd failed, to meet the desire of this person's heart. And I'm even more excited to follow through on the monthly commitment we've made, because this person is such a treasure, and I'm excited to see what God has in store for them.

And really, the whole point of this story is to say that God is always speaking to us. Sometimes those random thoughts and ideas are not so random and strange- sometimes, it's God giving us that idea. And according to the book of Mark, the more we listen and pay attention, the more God will show to us- and that is an incredibly exciting thought. I am just so thankful this morning that God saw fit to use us in such an incredible way. God IS so good, all the time! And as he speaks to us again and again, I've been praying that I won't miss what He has to say. I am trusting that His Word is truth, and that I will hear what He has to say when He says it.