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God Loves a Jigsaw
by Bobbie Cole Humanitarian Martin Luther King dreamed of equality. Fantine, in 'Les Miserables', dreamed of enduring love. What's your dream? Mine is of a space where people can grow as testimony sharers. The time before I had a dream was a time of uncertainty and shifts of direction. I was broken, following cancer and the failure of both my business and my marriage. Though, materially, I still had a lot, it was a time of hunger. What I've discovered is that it's not about asking God to pave our path. God wants us to find our own dreams. When we do, He blesses them: 'I will do whatever you ask in my name.' (John 14:10) The hard part is working out what we want. How do we do that? How do we discern whether we're a nose, a belly or a big toe? The Daily Grind The disciples, before Jesus called them, were everyday sorts of guys, earning a living, trying to feed their families and follow their faith. Is that you? Do you go with the flow, knowing you can do more? They never imagined they'd be healing, evangelising to the world or writing in far-flung places. They were just fishermen from Galilee, living in a closed-knit community, enclosed by mountains, in a little country called Israel. Yet we're still talking about them, two thousand years on. Jesus said: 'Whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these.' (John 14:12 NIV) Note the 'whoever'. That means you and me, as well as the disciples. We all have great things inside us. Jesus Can be So Cryptic If we listen when we pray, instead of spouting, of which I'm often guilty, then a picture will come, or a sentence will pop into our heads, a pointer to our direction. But be aware, God only very rarely reveals the whole thing. Everything comes on a need-to-know basis: He likes to play jigsaws. In 'Appointment in Jerusalem,' by the late Derek Prince, his wife, Lydia, saw a vision of an unknown city. When she realised it was Jerusalem, she left job, home and her native Denmark for that dangerous destination,(this was the 1920s). There, she discovered her role, which was to foster abandoned daughters of all denominations. God only showed her the why when she got there. Ruth in the Bible is another example of piecemeal communications. Her hope was that the man who had stepped forward to protect her, Boaz, would ask her to marry him after the harvest. But the days passed and the phone never rang. Things were beginning to look hopeless when Ruth's mother-in-law, Naomi, suddenly morphed into a cock-eyed optimist. I have no doubt that God was speaking through her. This is what she came up with: Ruth should purify herself and go up to the threshing floor that night. After Boaz lay down, she should creep up to him in the dark and lie beside him. That was some plan from dour depressive, Naomi. Not surprisingly, Ruth said, 'And then what?' At this point, Divine Inspiration seemed to vanish. 'And then he'll tell you what to do,' Naomi blustered. Ruth only found out what to do next after Boaz, a little the worse for drink, woke in the night and asked her what she wanted. The response she was inspired to give was perfect. 'Spread your cloak over me.' By this she meant marry me. And he did. Like Ruth, I, too, went up to the threshing floor in pursuit of my Boaz after God put me in front of a lovely man across the Atlantic in Canada. I knew my phone would never ring for he was too unassuming. So I sent up a prayer: if it's right and it's meant, could it be? And it was. Reach For Your Dream Listening prayer and keeping our eyes open allow God to inch back the curtain and offer a glimpse of the tantalising possibilities. The seeds of my passion about testimony can be traced to a pebble I picked. The pebble bore the word, 'Teacher'. The idea has grown and matured into Testimony Train, where we hone and share our Christian Testimonies, over a six-year period. If you haven't found your dream yet, please ask God to start drawing back the curtain today. (c) Bobbie Ann Cole 2013. Free Testimony Writing download will help you share at http://testimonytrain.com. Bobbie's testimony of the miraculous trail that led her from a Jerusalem church to find love in Atlantic Canada is on Amazon. Info and sample chapter: www.shedoesnotfearthesnow.com. Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |