Streams in the Wasteland

Hello everyone in bloggyland! Haha. It has been awhile since I have wrote but just to update you, everything has been going fine, fine, fine! I’ve been spending a lot of time in the sun and it’s been a great summer so far! I’ve been building close relationships with new friends and of course keeping up with my old ones (don’t be offended if you’re an old friend, you should take that as a compliment!!). So yes, I am truly thankful for this new season in my life. It has been wonderful and eye-opening all at the same time!

The last two posts I’ve written have been dealing with hope. In a short summary so you don’t have to read them, I feel that I have held back from God in the area of my hopes because of fears that I have absolutely no control over! I was scared to hope because I didn’t want anyone I love to be taken away from me, because I wasn’t sure there was someone out there for me, because I didn’t want to put myself out there to be hurt again…and the list goes on, especially because I’m a worry wart!! But over the last month or so, God has brought to my attention that I need to hope and I need to trust Him with my hopes. It’s not something that came to me one day, God gave me a couple of verses about hope and then I read a few articles/blogs over the past month, that have drove the issue home for me. This is so hard to explain, and I hope I do a good job but God wants me to hope and it’s even silly for me to act like He didn’t know my hopes and dreams in the first place. And here’s where I know God is still trying to help me to understand.

For the last 3-4 weeks, I have been doing a bible study with some new friends I have met online. (Hey April & Beth!!) It is an in depth study of Ruth and so far it hasn’t disappointed. We’ve been dealing with loss, perseverance, standing strong in adversity and this week it’s been kindness. As I finished session 3, I read the introduction to session 4 and it knocked my socks off!! (Oh, BTW in case you’re wondering the bible study is Ruth: Loss, Love & Legacy by Kelly Minter!) This week is titled: the Proposal and she talked about all the hard decisions that Ruth has had to make, even if they weren’t easy, which I can totally relate. But as she wraps the introduction up, she tells us about a discussion her and her friends were having about being single. She asked a friend if she thought she would ever get married and her friend replied “I don’t let myself go there”. (p.92) It was as if she had asked me. For so long, I didn’t let myself go there when I should have. Who was I kidding?? Like God didn’t have it in his hands the whole time!! He was just waiting for me to learn, grow and realize that I have to trust Him for every little thing! Why are we so hard headed, and feel we can do these things on our own?? We can’t! We just need to remember, He’s making a new way! Hope you have a great week!!

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up, do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wastelands.” Isa 43:18-19