Originally posted 3/27/20

God loves to wake me up between 4:30 and 5am! To be honest, I don’t love waking up that early, but since it happens frequently, I decided to take advantage of it and pray. One morning this week I was awake at 5am praying for my extended family. As I was praying for them God gave me a vision of a little green plant sprouting. I then heard him say, “I’m making all things new.” This is a statement that he gave me several months ago regarding my extended family. This time the people this word is meant for changed. I felt like this is a word for my whole family, as in anyone who is in Christ is my family, family. You don’t have to be related by blood to be in my family. As long as you are a child of God, you are in my family! 

During this time of staying put, I truly believe that God wants to make all things new. There is no way to live through all of this and not be permanently changed. I feel this is like the restart button for all of our lives. We can choose to redeem this time and draw closer to God. When this is over, we will likely have a renewed vision of what God put us on this earth to do. We will be filled with his presence and power. We will look back at this time and rejoice over it because we learned so much about who we are as children of God, and who God is and how good he is. On the flip side, we can choose to waste this time and sit in our house depressed and stressed over what may happen. At the end of all of this, life will stink. You will look back at this time and say, “This is where life fell apart.” You will feel weak and powerless. You may even think that God made all this happen, and blame him for where you are emotionally and spiritually. 

The other word I heard God say early that morning comes from Isaiah 48:6-8a, “You have heard; now see all this; and will you not declare it? From this time forth I announce to you new things, hidden things that you have not known. They are created now, not long ago; before today you have never heard of them, lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’ You have never heard, you have never known, from of old your ear has not been opened.” God is preparing us for new things! What are they? I have no clue, but I do know that whatever it is, it will be awesome! 

So I encourage you to redeem this time. Take time each day to pray and thank God for the work he is doing. Ask him what it is he wants to teach you during this time. Read your Bible. Psalms are great! Specifically Psalms 91, 37, 34, 23, and 139. Play some worship music. Go for walks and pray for your neighbors. These are all things that we as a family are doing, and I have already seen great fruit from them. 

Side note: Brett and I started hopping on Facebook Live each weekday at 12:30 for some time of encouragement, Bible, and prayer. If you are friends with me on Facebook, you should have received an invite to the Cherish the Best Facebook group. If you did not receive an invite, here is the link to the group. Feel free to invite anyone you like to the group. This is just something we are doing to help you keep your focus on Jesus (and help us keep Jesus as our focus).