{"id":22345,"date":"2014-10-17T00:25:08","date_gmt":"2014-10-17T04:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=22345"},"modified":"2014-10-16T12:48:08","modified_gmt":"2014-10-16T16:48:08","slug":"look-lord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2014\/10\/17\/look-lord\/","title":{"rendered":"Look For The Lord"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"encouragementbloggraphicromans15\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

“O storm-battered city, troubled and desolate.
\nI will rebuild you on a firm foundation of sapphires
\nand make the walls of your houses from precious jewels.
\nI will make your towers of sparkling rubies
\nand your gates and walls of shining gems.”
\nIsaiah 54:11,12<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I remember the first time I really read this verse…I was sitting in my “school room,” where I homeschooled my youngest two at the time. \u00a0A room I had so much pride in. \u00a0I had washed the walls, and put together shelves, and organized a bin with books and file folders and teachers’ planners, and all things education. \u00a0I had worked for the past 9 months in this home, cleaning out and making it a warm and inviting place where we as a family were beginning to heal from a hard season. \u00a0A place where we gathered in the den and watched ‘Dancing with the Stars” and had dinner picnics.<\/p>\n

But on this day, I was looking to God’s Word for hope as Kyle and I faced the hard decision to let this house go. \u00a0This is the first verse that I turned to. \u00a0On this day, God was my Restorer.<\/p>\n

\n

See, He speaks to us in the manner that we need—at the exact time we need Him. \u00a0He will be what you need Him to be.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As I looked up verse after verse, I was overwhelmed by just how much God loves me and you. I know that on that particular day, God knew that I needed His amazing promises of restoration and redemption more than I needed words of conviction. \u00a0He is our Father, and our Creator. \u00a0He knows it all before any of it happens. \u00a0His grace goes before us and softens the hard things. \u00a0In that season, I saw so many little bread crumbs of manna. \u00a0A lot of times I wondered why did any of this really have to happen and did it really have a purpose. \u00a0And then I would go to His Word and read something like this:<\/p>\n

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace,
\nWho called you to His eternal glory in Christ,
\nwill Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
\n1 Peter 5:10<\/p>\n

After you have gone through _________, Jesus will restore you<\/strong> <\/em>and God will strengthen you<\/strong><\/em>! \u00a0In other words, it will all be worth it and God will get all the glory.<\/p>\n

Through the hard season, I was given a strength and endurance that I never had before. \u00a0And God knew that I would need that strength later on in life and He conditioned me for it. \u00a0So I learned to rejoice in this. \u00a0As Romans 12:12 says,<\/p>\n

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.<\/p>\n

All trials and struggles keep us on our knees before God. \u00a0We learn to rely on Him and not ourselves. \u00a0Sometimes there is nothing we can do except<\/em> rely on Him. \u00a0And really, those are the most beautiful times. \u00a0We have to trust Him and His goodness.<\/p>\n

The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.
\nExodus 14:14<\/p>\n

You only need to wait on Him. \u00a0He knows what you need. \u00a0He will come through.<\/p>\n

And last, I want to remind you that you can make it through this. \u00a0Whatever you filled that blank in with, you can do this. \u00a0His power is enough and His strength is made perfect in our weakness. \u00a0And rejoice,<\/em> <\/strong>knowing that He loves you and He has already conquered and defeated this for you.<\/p>\n

But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you,
\nfor My power is made perfect in weakness.”
\nTherefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness,
\nso that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
\n2 Corinthians 12:9<\/p>\n

\u00a0 * \u00a0~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0~ \u00a0\u271e \u00a0~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0~ \u00a0* <\/span><\/p>\n

Let us pray<\/span><\/strong>: \u00a0Dearest Lord, You are amazing and awesome and so worthy of our praise. \u00a0You know our coming and going and You are in control of everything. Your Word is full of hope and Your Holy Spirit guides us to exactly what we need. \u00a0Thank You for hope in the horrible, and for giving us treasures in the trials. \u00a0You have been there with us…through everything…holding us and loving us. \u00a0You are enough and You are always for us. \u00a0And for those still unsure, please give them the reassurance that they need to lean wholly on You for everything. \u00a0In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“O storm-battered city, troubled and desolate. I will rebuild you on a firm foundation of sapphires and make the walls of your houses from precious jewels. I will make your towers of sparkling rubies and your gates and walls of shining gems.” Isaiah 54:11,12 I remember the first time I really read this verse…I was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":20533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6228],"tags":[1563,55,6998,2685,425,3577,7564,589,2232],"class_list":["post-22345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-encouragement-2","tag-1-peter-510","tag-2-corinthians-129","tag-encouragement-blog","tag-exodus-1414","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-holy-spirit-interceding","tag-hope-in-hard-seasons","tag-kim-spring","tag-romans-1212","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/encouragementbloggraphicromans15.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-5Op","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22345"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22361,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22345\/revisions\/22361"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}