The delay in your calling was intentional!
July/2025
We all wish that the Lord would just get in line with our own timing. I mean, we really put a lot of thought into our plans! We don’t understand why He just doesn’t get on board since we have it all figured out for Him!
As I am writing this - my first Marriage Minute, I reflect back to 21-year-old me. I was so full of spit and vinegar! Fresh off a DTS with YWAM 6 month school and mission trip. I arrived at Oak Hills Bible Collage sure I was going to change the world. But God’s timing was so much better (and Waaaaayyyyy slower) than my imagined time line.
Jeremiah 29:11(AMP) - For I know the plans and thoughts that I have for you,’ says the Lord, ‘plans for peace and well-being and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.
I read this beautiful verse now with completely different eyes than when I was 21. Now when I read ‘…plans and thoughts that I have for you’, the Holy Spirit shows me all the refining fires I have walked through that at the time really stunk. But now I see the hand of God guiding me through every trial to shape the character He knew I needed to carry His Shekinah calling for marriages. Learning about His character and knowing Father God intimately in the midst of struggles that almost crushed me is something I would never trade for a soft fluffy life! Now on this side of the page, I clearly see that it was all to create a future I could not have fostered on my own, and to have a depth of understanding of what hope is.
Hebrews 11:1 -Now faith is the assurance (title deed, confirmation) of things hoped for (divinely guaranteed), and the evidence of things not seen [the conviction of their reality—faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses].
I know Him deeply—not just in theory, but in the trenches of life. I had to rely on Him for my next breath, for our next paycheck, for food in the fridge, for my children’s salvation, and even for my husband’s life. It wasn’t optional—it was survival. And in that place, I discovered who He truly is.
My hope today runs deep—not because I’ve avoided hardship, but because I’ve walked through it with Him. Every struggle carved out space in me to know the Father more intimately. The kind of hope I carry now isn’t shallow or sentimental—it’s anchored. It’s unshakable. It’s rooted in my relationship with a faithful Father who has never let me go.
Romans 8:28(AMP) - And we know [with great confidence] that God [who is deeply concerned about us] causes all things to work together [as a plan] for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His plan and purpose.
Father God is already using your struggles. Your good times are that much sweeter. Your mountain tops are that much brighter because of your time in the valley. Turn your mourning in to rejoicing and cooperate with Father as he is teaching and training you.
Pray with me:
Father, thank you that you are using every struggle to show me a new aspect of You and Your love. I invite you Holy Spirit right now to speak with me and show me how to cooperate with you in this moment. I ask for your spirit of revelation to come on me. Holy Spirit, what do you want me to know right now in this moment? (Now listen for Holy Spirit to speak with you).
