Thursday, September 21, 2006

Faith Trumps Worry

Well, I'm at the ACFW Conference and things are gearing up. . . tonight is Opening Night! So many great friends and ACFWers.

Here's a blog from my husband. It encouraged me.

He writes:

I had two or three fairly large concerns on my mind, and had prayed about them, but was also trying to hear God regarding any actions I needed to take.

I’d spent about half an hour just walking, praying in the Spirit, and listening, but I hadn’t heard anything. Just when I was about to conclude that God wasn’t going to say anything to me today, He started speaking.

But He wasn’t answering my questions. He didn’t address anything I was worried about. Instead He began speaking vision to me for an upcoming ministry trip in February. As I was wondering why He was talking now, but ignoring my questions, He reminded me of the story of Elijah in I Kings 19.

Elijah had just called down fire from heaven on Mt. Carmel, then fled from the threat of Jezebel to Mt. Sinai, where he was telling God about how bad things were and how he was the only one left serving Him (see verse 14).

Romans 11:2-4 refers to this as the time Elijah interceded against Israel. In a weak moment he lost faith and saw things only from his human perspective. Basically he was ready to quit. So how did God respond? He gave Elijah something to do (three tasks to be exact), and reminded him that he wasn’t alone (I Kings 19:18).

He changed Elijah’s focus and perspective. By giving him tasks god was restoring faith and vision, and not accepting his resignation. So what was my take away? Don’t worry about those concerns I had. They’ll work out. Just focus on what God has for me to do.

So I did.

Great blog, babe!

The Conclusion of Summer Love to come soon. . .

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It makes me happy that Tony is blogging now. And I've heard a little about the Feb trip and, in case you didn't guess, I'm totally there! :-)
I hope Dallas has been super! Love you, Elizabeth

Cara Putman said...

Rachel,

Thanks for posting his blog. You don't know how much it speaks to me -- right where I'm at. Thanks for stepping in and all your hard work for ACFW. It was a great conference. And thanks for hanging out Saturday night. It was fun to kick back even though I was practically comatose from the rollercoaster of emotions. But most of all, thanks for the sweet times of worship. I was desperate to hear God, to feel His heartbeat, and through worship I did.