I knew I needed to share my testimony. Our Pastor said this to the people gathered in church, “I want to release a testimony on the goodness of God. It just came forward. I heard it for the first time. It’s good and then we are going to dance on our injustices.”
And here is what I shared (exactly from recording),
“The Sage Family has been standing in a place of challenge and depending on the Lord for more than a decade and He has shown us a lot of good, a lot of faithfulness. The testimony I felt like God wanted me to share this morning is that in May my mom, who has been living in France, asked if I wanted a passport for my birthday and I said that would be great. And she said expedite it and I’ll pay for it and I said Ok. And on my birthday, my passport arrived in the mail, earlier than it was expected. God totally ordained that timing. And after I got my passport she said, I want you to come to France for 2-4 weeks, 2 is too short. God totally made a way. My boy was with his grandparents and his cousin. I was able to return Friday night from 3 weeks, all expenses paid trip over the top to the South of France, Italy and Monaco. And experienced what I had asked the Lord to give me when 37 years ago I had gone to Europe and had wanted to go back in 5 years, (I) didn’t know the Lord at the time. It has always been a dream of mine (to return to Europe). And I declared throughout that trip, praising and thanking, praising and thanking, swimming in the Mediterranean in Antibes, praising and thanking God for what he had done and “But God” was my anthem because circumstances lie and God says “everything that’s impossible in your eyes But God says it’s possible and His favor is not for just what you ask but more, beyond what you can imagine, Ephesians 3:20. It’s beyond your wildest dreams. We need to dream bigger than we have ever dreamt before because he wants the testimony of My God did more than I ever imagined he could because He loves me. Not because of who I am but because of who He is. He loves you. And He wants to love you lavishly, not a little bit but Big, beyond. He wants to show the world what love looks like and it looks like this. It looks like having our hands open. Not hanging on to one thing. Hanging on to Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and saying I am for you God. I am for your glory, nothing else. I want to glorify you in every choice, in every word, in every thought and it’s not by work or effort or striving or trying hard. It’s by lying down on the ground, face down, saying God I love you. Show me more about who you are. That’s the truth!”
And my Pastor added,
“What she didn’t tell you is her purse got stolen 2 years ago with all of their financial resources and God gave her a purse when she was in France. So the Lord restored what the enemy tried to steal. Our God is good all the time. So let’s just dance on the goodness of God and things that oppose that.”
Yep! God gave me a three week all expenses paid trip to France with two day trips to Italy and a day in Monaco. Seriously! I had let my passport expire after our honeymoon (nearly twenty years earlier) and I had wanted a passport again badly. But God. I had desired to be back in Europe within 5 years of my post-high school, pre-college adventure and had never made it back. But God. My purse had been stolen and I had used a Ziploc as a wallet for more than two years. Seriously! And at a street vendor in Valbonne, France, on my dream trip, I spotted my new, beautiful, perfect wallet.
So does the enemy win? He broke into the car, took my purse, all our everything resources we had at the time. Oh, and I found out you can fly without an ID. I got gifts from friends (dinner, reading glasses, snacks for the plane) and enough cash to get home, but I was furious. It was mean. It was destructive. It was traumatic. It hurt. But that was not the end. And did God out do him? Oh my, did He ever. On this trip I was showered with gifts, treats, yummy meals, beautiful places, all paid for Lord. What magnificence. I know you are good all the time and you are lavish and you are creative. This I know.
Excerpt from Truth In Hard Places