Can You Hear Me Now?

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?

I started downloading the “Can You Hear Me Now?” weekly prayer prompts from our church web-site this week. We are in week three of the series, and I wonder why I didn’t check it out sooner. Life, I suppose... Prayer is a part of every day in our home, and in my personal time with God – but it is interesting to have direction or themed subjects for prayer time.

Today’s word is “DO” and the reading of Psalm 37. The verses that jumped out at me are 3 and 4, “Trust in the Lord and DO good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” The latter part of this verse actually came to mind upon my job loss – despite the loss I continued to delight myself in the Lord and trust in Him as my provider. My prayer was big – asking God to provide a new job that would in turn, provide for my family. As I reflect on how quickly I was hired by a new company in a rocky economy, can there be any doubt in your mind that all of this was divinely orchestrated? I have this vision of God putting everything into place. The timing of my job loss with the new posting of the Edward Jones position, the job being offered before I had a chance to interview elsewhere… um, yeah…this is a God thing. He is DOING on my behalf and I praise Him for that!
Now that He has fulfilled His “end of the bargain” it is my turn to DO. I want to shout it out to everyone that God provided me this new job! He is so POWERFUL and AWESOME! Can you hear me now? (LOL)

Have you questioned why God has placed you in a certain situation and you ask “why?” I have lost count of how many times that has happened to me, ESPECIALLY in the past two years. But one thing I was certain of, I had a job to DO. I am not talking about the day to day tasks of an employee’s job, but the task of going about the Great Commission. We are all called to plant seeds for the Kingdom, no matter where we go, no matter how temporary we may be in one place. I am positive that if more Christians depicted love on the outside, versus judgement and haughtiness, that the harvest would be that much greater to reap on the day of Jesus’ return. What are you DOING for the kingdom? Are you planting seeds, or are your words and actions met with disdain and falling upon hardened ground? Life situations and experiences cause hardened hearts, and only love can soften them so that a person may receive Jesus. As the song playing in the background speaks, “Let Jesus live through you and me!”

Today’s digital layout is a late one for Ivorys Designs – I apologize for being late! In the month of January I only managed one layout from her wonderful Loopy Lime collection. I guess I have been spending a lot of time these past few weeks with the job search…it couldn’t be helped. I love the color and I love the elements in her collection. One of the greatest digi tricks I learned from a Kjoi Studios tutorial recently was how to merge patterned paper onto a shape in the layer below. This is what I did with the film strip by Majula Designs – I “grouped” the filmstrip with Ivorys Designs wonderful patterned paper so that it has a circle design to pick up the roundness of a dandelions.

“Planting Seeds” meets both the February ad challenge at ACOT, and the element challenge by mITSYBELLE at Kjoi Studios – although you may think I am stretching it a bit. For the element challenge my flowers come from the photos (rules didn’t say they could not), the journaling is matted in essence with a vignette border, and the triangle shapes are actually stitched patterns in the ribbon hangers. Is that pushing it a bit, or simply thinking outside the box? (LOL)

The journaling in the layout provides an answer to a question I have asked many times, “why am I here Lord?” As I soon begin a new career, I am sure the answer will be revealed in time. God’s time, that is. I will close with verse 7 from Psalm 37, “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him, DO not fret...” Many of you may be waiting for an answer. Let your prayers be heartfelt, honest and offered up with humility…and always Trust, no matter the circumstances. I plan to continue scattering seeds wherever I am planted, and hope you will, too!