God's calling...

I went to church today...Jacob Halverson and Sara Pau graduated from highschool. I could not help reflecting on the years it takes God to chisel someone for a particular calling...I don't know how He graduates us but I think somewhere along the line we experience a deep sense of peace...beginning to understand our lives up to that moment as...the Potter's workshop. We begin to see the "tools" He has used, the inevitable pain that went along with the soul surgery that only He can perform, the moulding, the shaping, the breaking...until we see clearly that He calls...but all He requires us to do is to obey His Spirit...and He will fulfill the rest.

The Lord reminded me again of Proverbs 24 and the verse that God gave Alin when he proposed to me...18 years ago. Our anniversary is coming up in August...and somehow, the Lord saw fit to encourage me in a direct way.

Alin's verse:

"My son, eat honey because it is good, and the honeycomb which is sweet to your taste; so shall the knowledge of wisdom be to your soul; if you have found it, there is a prospect, and your hope will not be cut off." (Prov. 24:13,14)

Shortly after our marriage I heard Him call to me, too...

"Deliver those who are drawn toward death, and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter." (Proverbs 24:11)

Years later, I find that He calls but He empowers...and it is He that delivers all along...it is He that holds back...He just needs me to "listen to His heart" as expressed in Acts 4:30" ...stretching out Your hand to heal..." and when He puts a burden on my heart...I am to pray and fast...

I was getting discouraged because I was looking for His hand to move in my family...faster than it is moving in my life (I am to learn to climb up the Hill Difficulty...and attempting the practical application of certain portions of Prov. 31)...while I hold on to two guardrails: on one hand the realization that God owns my marriage (pinneapple garden) and on the other hand the realization that He is the Author and Finisher of my faith, my husband's faith, my children's faith.

The Hill of Difficulty:

1. "she does (her husband) good and not evil all the days (seasons) of her life"

2. "she opens her mouth with wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kindness."

3. "she watches over the way of her household, and does not eat the bread of
idleness."

4. "she shall rejoice in time to come."

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"He is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He ever lives to make intercession for them. For such a High Priest was fitting for us..." (Hebrews 7:25,26)