Not Always Where You're Looking For It!

"I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: 

I will guide thee with mine eye!" 

~Psalms 32:8~

Hello there! I hope this rather odd/funny photo above ^^^ doesn't scare you off from reading today's post! LOL! 8-)  Keep reading and you'll find out the "why" of the picture! ;)

A couple of days ago my dear Mom lost a set of rings.  She had looked all over the house to no avail.  Needless to say, she was sad.  (I don't like to see my Mom sad and I love finding things! Lol.)  Well, I looked around too and couldn't find them either.  I prayed that God would lead me to them.  

Well, one morning before work, I felt God prompting me to check the garbage (which was out in the garage gathered for tomorrow's garbage pick up).  I went out to the garage and commenced the stinky search! *pinch nose here* I was excited because I was convinced it was in a little garbage bag from the room she was in when she remembered taking them off!  I found the little bag and after some digging - came up empty handed.  *sigh* A wave of disappointment started to come. (God had led me to the garbage right?  So why wasn't it there?)  Well, I felt a prompting to look more, so I did.  Still nothing.  Then I saw a couple of paper towels toward the bottom of another bag and I picked them out in a last ditch effort and what do I find but to my utter delight - the two missing rings!!!!!!  It was like I had just dug up a long lost treasure from an island or something! Lol!  (HUGE GRIN INSERTED HERE!)  My sweet Mom was thrilled to pieces and I felt crazy blessed to be used by God to bring her such specific joy!

I know that's just a little life story, but the application that God gave me through that made a HUGE impact on my day and made my heart swell with gratefulness!  I love His heart messages!  

Here's the "moral of the story" folks - God answers prayer and gives the best gifts, but they're not always exactly where you're looking for them!  When you're in His will, it's sooooooo important to trust His heart (and His details)!  I knew that He had guided me to the garbage, but I had my own idea of how He was going to answer me there.  I was focused in on that one bag as being the place of answered prayer.  So, when it wasn't there, I started to be discouraged. As my brother told me once, "God doesn't deal in discouragement." And he was right - I brought on discouragement because of my expectations.  The right kind of expectation, is expecting God to work - in HIS WAY!  I'm so glad God is patient and is passionate about revealing His will!  He prompted me on in my search and so came His answer with a greater outcome than the one I imagined! 

I had a bounce in my step, a smile on my face, and a joy in my heart that day because I was reminded in a big way that my God is the God of answered prayer and His ways are SO MUCH HIGHER than mine!  

Remember - God's answers are not always where you're looking for them!  Rest assured, my friend, that the "end of the story" is AMAZING, when you walk in God's will and surrender to the way in which He knows is best to answer you!  I encourage you to say these verses out loud to God and then read that last verse (one of my very favs!) as though you hear God's voice saying it to you personally - because, He is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• "My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him!" -Psalm 62:5

• "O lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether.  Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it." -Psalm 139:1-5

• "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct thy paths!" - Proverbs 3:5-6

• "Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?"   - Jeremiah 32:27

Blessings! :)

~Bri