Keep on speaking by Holly Myers

Raise your hand if you love all things pumpkin spice! If you raised your hand then we are meant to be friends haha.  I love the smell of fall and the transitioning to cute cardigans and cute booties. Fall is my favorite season hands down.  There are also days where everything seems to be falling into place. It’s the days where it’s as if you know without a shadow of a doubt that God sees you because you can feel His favor.  The kind of favor that feels like the toes in the sand pictures, the mountain top selfies or the dinner with all your best friends. I have begun to see that it’s in those seasons that a greater need begins to stir in us for God. Because the reality is that seasons of drought, doubt and frustration always find us.  Good seasons aren’t always consistent and good days fade but friend God never stops being good no matter how we feel. 

In our minds we build up expectations that consist of everything that we don’t have or everything that’s wrong with our current season. We begin to doubt God and then we begin to distance ourselves from the very thing He has called us to do. If the enemy can get you to doubt one thing he knows getting you to doubt two things will be a piece of cake. The truth about who we think we are dictates our every step and how we walk in the dreams we desire to come true. We talk about our passions, we think about them, we read about things related to them but never move beyond the thought. 

In Acts, Paul is working (tent maker) and sharing the gospel. His drive to move the kingdom forward blows me away.  As I came across this verse in chapter 18 it reminded me of two beautiful truths that I want to share with you. 

Acts 18:9-11
One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking do not be silent. For I am with you and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.” So Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God.

It says “keep on speaking” this to me must have come at a time where Paul is working all week long tired and living in a house with a family that he didn’t know very well and yet on the weekends he gave it all he had trying to win people to Jesus. Was he discouraged? Maybe ready to give up? How many times have you been in this spot where you needed just a little extra nudge from God to keep going.

Secondly, it says He stayed for a year and a half longer teaching them the word of God. That’s a lot of days. I look at seasons where just two weeks into something I’m exhausted and ready to throw in the towel all in the name of Jesus. What I am realizing is that length of a season literally has nothing to do with my obedience but everything to do with my disobedience. When we serve God out of duty then any length will quickly turn to bitterness and frustration and in the end we can miss the presence of God. When we choose to serve out of our love for Him above all else peace and freedom flow, and we see Him clearly and are satisfied.

This season, I am in is one of the hardest I have ever had to endure. My insecurities are at an all time high; I am doubting my every move, and the things I am fervently praying for I see no movement. I feel like I have been on a constant roller coaster. I always laugh at kids when they want to ride a roller coaster and yet they cry through the entire ride and yet hours later they are ready to endure it again. I believe it’s because they know what to expect the second time around.  There is so much truth in that. We have been called and chosen to share the gospel daily and yet we also know the enemy’s one job is to derail us over and over and over again. God’s word reminds us and yet I forget often. I woke up this past week and walked outside around my backyard never saying a word, while tears flowed down my face. I looked up and said “God I have nothing to say, can you just look at my heart and read my thoughts?”.  The beautiful thing is that God knows my defeating thoughts and yet stays with me. 

The emotional roller coaster days and the days where everything is “pumpkin spice” right I have to be able to praise Him no matter what. 

I have to listen for His sweet voice to whisper on some days and on other days I  can feel his army of angels shouting to keep going! Keep loving! Keep speaking! Keep trying! Keep praying! Keep honoring! Keep reaching! 

 Your season is not defining your future instead it is setting you up to lean in and lean on the only One who can carry you into the next season victoriously. What season is He calling you deeper into? 
Lets respond with our arms high and our heart abandoned as we relinquish anything that has self as the center.
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Isaiah 6:8  Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying; “whom shall I send and who will go for us? ”  Then I said “HERE I AM SEND ME.”
 
 

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