“I am able to do far beyond all that you ask or imagine. Come to Me with positive expectations, knowing that there is no limit to what I can accomplish. Ask My Spirit to control your mind, so that you can think great thoughts of Me. Do not be discouraged by the fact that many of your prayers are yet unanswered. Time is a trainer, teaching you to wait upon Me, to trust me in the dark. The more extreme your circumstances, the more likely you are to see My Power and Glory at work in the situation. Instead of letting difficulties draw you to worrying, try to view them as setting the scene for My glorious intervention. Keep your eyes and your mind wide open to all that I am doing in your life.” Jesus Calling devotional by Sarah Young
This Jesus Calling devotional by Sarah Young had my wheels spinning this morning and I can’t seem to stop thinking about the words…the meaning…the possibilities…
Let’s start from the beginning…
“I am able to do far beyond all that you ask or imagine. Come to me with positive expectations, knowing that there is no limit to what I can accomplish.”
Many times I come to God with my ‘requests’, but do I really (I mean REALLY) come expecting Him to answer and do above and beyond what I can even think or imagine? Or do I just limit Him to a tiny box and only think He can work in my life according to what I can see with my natural eyes? Do I transfer my circumstances of anovulation onto God and think He won’t answer my prayer for a baby this cycle (or even the next one) because currently my body isn’t working properly? God is known for taking less than perfect environments or situations and performing miracles and I must never forget this truth. I need to always come to Him asking for BIG things and then expect big things to happen. There are no limits to God.
“Ask my Spirit to control your mind, so that you can think great thoughts of Me.”
If you asked me, “Do you have ‘great thoughts’ of God?” I would raise both hands and say, “Of course!”–and I do–but if I took an account for every thought or idle word I speak in regards to my circumstances, could I really say I had ‘great thoughts’ about God all of the time? If I truly believed that all things would work out for my good, then why do I sometimes worry? Why do I stomp my feet and cry out if I trust that He is faithful to His promises? It’s easy to look at our circumstances and lose sight and think that He is not good, merciful, faithful, loving, and working all good things out for our good; but we need to constantly ask the Holy Spirit to control our mind and emotions, so that we only have great thoughts about the Great I Am.
“Do not be discouraged by the fact that many of your prayers are yet unanswered. Time is a trainer, teaching you to wait upon me, to trust me in the dark.”
My current cycle is the longest it has ever been. I have broken the record for the longest.cycle.ever. and I can’t help but sometimes become discouraged. I have prayed for shorter cycles, to see signs of ovulation, and to be pregnant, but to no avail. But I can’t let myself become discouraged because my prayers are not answered in the time frame that I would like. Time is one of the greatest factors that can kill the promises of God from coming into our lives because we mistake the length (or time) of our wait as the answer “no”, and if we think the answer is “no”, then we will lose sight, give up, or try something else that God has not planned. God’s delays are not His denials. I cannot allow time to be viewed as my enemy, but rather a helper. Eek! Cringe! I almost hated typing that, but I need to open my mind to the fact that God could be using time in my situation as a training tool to wait upon Him. I am a doer and I’m always looking for quick solutions, so the thought of ‘waiting’ on God seems slow, boring and unproductive. However, in the Bible, to wait upon God is not “sitting still” or being “unproductive”, but rather an act of trusting, praising, worshiping, praying, and seeking more after Him. Am I allowing this time of “waiting” to teach me how to trust, worship, praise, and seek after Him more? Are you? I am trying hard to not let my time of “waiting” be useless, but a season of growth in my faith. By doing so, this journey has had the same problems, but the problems are growing dim and the struggle to continue each day is becoming less.
“The more extreme your circumstances, the more likely you are to see My Power and Glory at work in your situation. Instead of letting difficulties draw you into worrying, try to view them as setting the scene for my glorious intervention.”
As I continue into this journey, I can’t help but worry or view my situation as getting more ‘extreme’. From my perspective, I should have little hope of conceiving naturally, but I choose to not let the long cycles, multiple pages of medical reports, or my logical reasoning to take over and cause me fear, worry, or unbelief. Instead, I will view my long, anovulatory cycles as opportunities for God to orchestrate a scene in which He can suddenly show up and show out with a glorious intervention that showcases His power. The more extreme my circumstances look, the more glory God will get in the end. Would I like to have a normal 28 day cycle with obvious signs of ovulation so that I could “time” better? Of course! But what I want even more is for my story of God’s miraculous power to leave mouths open and jaws dropped.
Sweet friend, are you facing an impossibility? If so, I encourage you to keep reading over this devotional today, maybe even type it out on paper and put it on your bathroom mirror as a reminder to look at your ‘extreme circumstance’ from a different perspective. Don’t look at the time it is taking or the difficulties along the way as set backs, but as opportunities that God is using them to perfect you and perfect the final scene in which He shows His power and glory. Doing so is an act of faith and demonstration of your trust in Him. Also, let this devotional remind you to come boldly before Him and ask of BIG and impossible things…things we can’t even fathom; but don’t just ask, expect him to answer.
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