Stories of a good God

Archive for the ‘Transition’ Category

It’s time for new shoes, it’s time for a new walk – God is Good!

As A and I went for our walk yesterday we saw these boots left abandoned, sitting on the grass:

Boots on bayside walk © Beth Kennedy 2020

I looked at them as we walked past, laughing that God was showing me something, just not knowing what. Having walked past the spot, I felt a gentle nudge to go back and take a photo…

I asked the Father what He was trying to tell me about them. I felt He said that it was time for us to change our shoes, to change our walk. I feel He is saying that to the Bride of Christ – He is saying to us all that we have had our work boots on for so long, and now it’s time to take them off and stop working so hard for Him.

We have been doing and doing and doing… without knowing who we are first…

These abandoned boots say it’s time to change our walk, and hence, take our work boot off and get ready for a change of shoes. The boots had done well in the past, but now they needed exchanging for an upgrade, for a fresh way to walk.

What I found particularly interesting was the direction they were facing:

As we walk through these strange times, I hear Him say: ‘Be wise where you set your gaze.’
Boots facing out to sea © Beth Kennedy 2020

If someone was standing in these boots, they would look out to sea – one of my favourite places to look. Noting the direction I felt God whisper again:

It’s important what direction we face in these times. It really matters what we are fixing our gaze upon in this season of transition.

It was as if the wearer had seen the beauty of the view, and had discarded the boots for a walk of simplicity and purity, a bare-footed walk with a focus on God’s goodness, God’s beauty. It resonates of Moses stopping for the burning bush, removing his shoes in the desert, for he was standing on Holy Ground:

‘Do not come any closer,’ God said. ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground’ Exodus 3:5 (NIV)

It is at this point God gives Moses his commissioning, but first Moses had to stop, take off his work boots, and listen!

So we take off our work boots (our works) and in simplicity (bare-footed) we go to Him, sit, wait, linger and hear His heartbeat for ourselves, and as we hear the heartbeat for ourselves, we will also hear His heartbeat for those around us. As we do both: hear Him for us; hear Him for them, He will equip us afresh with new shoes, and these shoes will look quite different to the old.

I don’t know what my new shoes will look like.

I don’t know what your new shoes will look like.

But for now we need not know, we need simply to stop and take off our shoes.

Come to me and be still.

Rest a while and know that I am good.

Breathe and allow me to take you through the storm and on the other side of all this, then, having rested, you will be ready to run the race set before you.

Yes, we are in ‘unprecedented’ times. Yes, we are in a ‘reset’ (even the nonChristian world is using this phrase). Yes, it is challenging, and confusing, and different… but God!

If we can all collectively stop, take off our work boots, ‘be still and know (experientially) that [He is] God’ (Ps 46:10), breathe, rest and listen… and then go with Him rather than for Him, then I believe that the world will see that…

God is Good!

Tell me:

How has God been talking to you in these last few days?

Have you seen similar ‘burning bushes’ or ‘signs’?

Category:

Burning Bush, changing shoes, covid-19, Exodus 3:5, God is good stories, God is good testimonies, God is Good!, God Testimonies, hearing from God, Prophetic signs, Transition, walking with God

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Even through transition God is Good!

Our family has been on a journey for the last 2 or so years.  Our children have got involved in an activity at a high level, which requires sacrifice from all members of the family.  The training is “vocational”, and they started this not long after my husband and I gave them permission to chase after their dreams, to go ahead and shine.  This journey was very unexpected and has my husband and I (with help from family and friends) travelling into the city six days a week (a 1 and a half hour round trip just on the road).

The demands of this has put our family in a dilemma.  Our children are now 12 (my daughter R) and 9 (my son M).  This is a critical age in the children’s Christian walk, yet the thought of the entire family climbing back in the car early each Sunday morning for yet another long car ride (church was a 1 and a half hours round trip for us) left us feeling drained and exhausted …

We recently came to the realisation that we needed a local body, close, that would be community for us and our children in this season of our lives … and so with great sadness, after 21 years of serving in the same church, we started to look for a place that might be our new “home” …

As this transition played out, many beautiful friends, both Christian and non-Christian, loved on us … without knowing what was going on in our own lives … yes God is Good!

To name a few …

“Chicken soup for the soul” one of my most loved Christian buddies said laughing as she stood on my doorstep, unannounced, with fresh chicken soup for my family. I hugged her wanting to share, but knowing it would dishonour our leaders if our pastors were not the first to know of our decision …

Another non-Christian friend texted me … the day my husband spoke to our senior pastor of 21 years … “Hi B – you have been on my mind today…how is everything?? Hope all is well. X”

God was looking out for me and my family … loving us on purpose through what He knew would be hard and painful, and sad …

Over the last 2 or so months I have received kisses from God in  much the same way …

The goodness of God is amazing …

The morning we walked into the church that we have now decided to call “home” the pastor, a vibrant amazing beautiful highly prophetic gifted woman said: “you are the answer to my prayers.  I was praying yesterday and asking for mature Christians with children the same age of my own, and here you are!”

At the time I thought “no pressure” as I held back the tears … thankfully she was gracious …

Her husband, also a pastor at the church is a gifted musician, worship leader … he has a heart for worship, in all forms … the thought is bringing me alive again!

They are hungry for what we are hungry for … and have a great vision for the area … the area in which we live, our burb … where I have stopped for the one numerous times …

I have just received an email from another friend who has heard the news this morning:

I am thrilled your family has found a new local church that is closer to you and I pray the transition is smooth for you and your husband and kids.

I also pray that your whole person (mind, emotions, will, personality, spiritual giftings etc) are welcomed, understood and blessed in your new spiritual home/family and beyond.

People celebrating us as we move … it brought tears to my eyes.

There is a deep sense of excitement stirring in the deepest part of my being …

God has loved us and will continue to love us through the transition, purely and simply because …

God is Good!

 

Category:

Finding a new church, Friendship, God is good, Transition

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Hey, you…God is Good!

Anyone that knows me personally knows that my family and I, have been going through a massive transition.  Mostly wonderful, lots of stretching, some challenging … some shaking … but all for good!

In transition it can be difficult (more so for some than others) to not feel completely overwhelmed, especially when the change is sudden and swift.

Looking back, you can see God’s handprint all over it.  Fortunately I had listened to seemingly odd instructions like “don’t pick that one up … let go of that commitment … tell them you are not available (although in the natural you are) … only pick that one up until the end of the year …” My husband has had similar experiences and seasons are now ending for him too … we can see God’s hand print all over it … and although the panic may arise we declare with our mouths that God has it in hand, that He orchestrated all this and He will make a way forward …

None of it’s been bad … in fact it is as a result of walking in God’s favour that such a shift is taking place … you can see His favour all over it … and we know His purposes are in it … yet such changes can be unsettling to say the least …

Last year was also a very tough year for many reasons … and so we came to the end of 2013 looking for some quiet, some peace … we didn’t get it, but break through came … all over the place … starting in late January!

It is in these seasons we can get overwhelmed with the transition, with the shaking, with the chaos, and forget to see His hand in our every day life …

Well … if you look and hold onto His goodness you will find it …

When I was at my lowest about a week and a half ago, I sat on the couch, and was willing myself to get moving, reminding myself that it would all settle.  As I got up and going there was a knock at the door and there standing in my doorway was an angel … a friend who has had such a massive and challenging journey herself in the last three years … She said:

“I just felt I had to come”,

and in her hands were roses and chocolates.

I teared up … knowing she was letting me know I was loved by her and God was letting me know that I was loved by Him … He had sent her, she had heard His prompting, and she responded … the timing was supernatural!

She came in.  We had a tea, we had a chat, and she left … me not just knowing intellectually that God is Good, God is Love but experiencing His goodness … His Love …

A week later, I get a call from the same girl …

“I have made dinner for you and it’s on your doorstep” …

Now please know, her child has been severely ill.  Is hospitalized regularly, and had just undergone surgery … yet she was responding to a God urge to bless me whose entire family is walking in favour and breakthrough.  She regularly celebrates our joy, our break through and our success as if it were her own, knowing that her family’s is coming, she genuinely feeds on the goodness of God in her own life and in other’s lives, knowing that the ultimate breakthrough in healing for daughter is on it’s way …

And the kisses kept coming …

Two friends prophesy at a conference … I bump into loved friends, all of who are a delight to see, and, most recently, a card arrives in the post, from another friend who I have known since I was four, completely out of my church circle, and outside of my local community circle … she said later she knew she had to do what she did … and the card said:

Hey, you.

Yep, you.

The one feeling a little weary.

Carrying that load.

Fighting this battle.

You’re beautiful, you know that?

It’s true.

And you can do this with Him.

With His power.

I know it.

I feel it.

Keep going, girl.

You feel like your strength is small.

But it’s not.

It’s BIG.

World-changing big.

Life-altering big.

Make-it-over-that-mountain big.

BIG enough for you to do what you need to do.

Because your strength is as big as the God in you.

Copyright: Holley Gerth 2011

This one did me in and it made me get very teary.  I read it a lot at the moment.

God knew what I was walking in, and He had told a friend to be His hands, His heart to me … she had taken time shop and to write and to send … she had taken the time to listen to her Father in Heaven and to co-labour with Him … and in her doing so she encouraged a friend unknowingly at a crucial time of challenge and stretch …

I don’t believe He has done all this for me because I go out and do stuff for Him, I believe that He does this for me because I am His most Beloved Daughter … His Beloved Son …

I believe He does this purely and simple because …

God is Good!

Category:

God is good, God's love, Kiss of God, Love, random act of kindness, Transition

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