1 Chronicles 4:10 "And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested."
I am really reminiscing on this one, it goes way back to the late 70's. Let me start at the beginning, hope you have time, we had gotten saved in 1974, about two years later my dear husband was called to preach. Well he started praying, *long before the prayer of Jabez was ever written in a little book* and this verse he claimed, 1 Chronicles 4:10, he surrendered his all to the lord, and ask him to enlarge his coast, to give him the mission field he wanted us to serve in, to give him the strength to carry out any assignment the lord would give.
We lived in Jacksonville, FL at that time, January 1 1980 God called us to Miami, FL. I sure did not want to go there, but being the obedient wife, and obedient child of God I held in my feelings. We packed our my belongings, our children, and away we went.
Bound for a new ministry, a new life, with all new surroundings.
Well I wish I could tell you I was happy, because we were in the lord's will, but I was not, I kept praying oh God why did you send us to this strange land. Of all the places, to a place we did not speak the language, and the people were different than I was used to. Well After a couple of months, and a very bad battle with a virus, I surrendered my will to God also. Anywhere he would send, I prayed lord use us, and let us be a blessing to others. I had finally settled in, started working with the youth, and we had a good life going. I was started to get rooted again, in my little garden of life. Then one day my dear husband said I feel a strange drawing to the west, and we giggled and he said, is that you lord saying, *Go West Young Man, Go West* well strangely enough a pastor called from Colorado, wanting us to come and be assistants Pastor with him, and youth director. Well we packed up, giving away more of our belongings and away we went to the Rocky mountains of Colorado, well some strange things were happening in this church, and we only stayed there about 10 months, then defeated and broken we came back to FL, we had to stay with friends, and start from scratch once again. By now I am getting tired of moving, and tired of being in others care, and just plain tired of living the life of a preacher.
Shame on me, I never was vocal about this, but just keep harboring ill feelings for some, and even for my husband, that was dragging me all over.
We did get back on our feet, he went to work as a Superintendent on construction, and God worked it all out for us to buy some land, and put a home on it. Now finally I had my own home, I could relax and just serve the lord with all gladness, and things would be all hunky dory, WRONG...
I actually felt like I was being planted, and I was growing, and I was doing all the things I wanted to do, *Now tell me does that statement look right to you?* Kinda looks like that statement in Isaiah made by Satan huh. Well that was most of my problem, I was not blooming where I was planted, I was shriveling up, and ready to drop my leaves.
My dear husband had to have back surgery, WOW now what am I going to do, that my first thought, how will we survive now, well in case you do not know, we serve a very big God, who is very capable in caring for his children, He did, we never missed a meal, we never missed paying a bill, and I fell on my face one night after I came home from the hospital from seeing my beloved, and ask God to take that selfish streak out of me, to replace it with a giving Spirit, of love and kindness, to take the bitter feelings I had away, and to replace them with a worshipping heart to God. I got up different that night. God took care of us, always had, and he always will, not long after that my husband became a Pastor, we were trying to plant a church in Georgia, well God planted us, and honestly I seen myself bloom as never before, I was becoming what God wanted of me, He has the lead in my life, and my dear husband follows him, as I follow my husband, happily and gladly serving God where ever we go.
Now my dear friend, let me ask you to search your own heart, are you following God obediently and not holding back any thing from him, he want to use you, he wants to make you bloom like the finest rose in your garden. Let him, yes just let go and let God.
God bless you today, lots of Hugs, Barbara♥
