because of Your love...

I was talking to my friend Michele Jacoby about obedience yesterday afternoon as I drove down I-35 to get to our 5 o'clock church service. She was driving on another highway leading to her final destination of Detroit. Michele and her husband Rick (see pic) are answering God's call to move back to Michigan from Austin and pick up whatever ministry He has for them in the Detroit area.

For the 4 years I have known Michele and Rick, they have talked about moving back home. But it was because they were homesick, missed family. Now that they have become established in Austin with ministries, good friends and jobs, God has called them to leave it all behind and go and be a light to lost families and friends in Michigan. They are trusting God to use Rick to help lead worship somewhere. They don't know where.

They are some of my best friends. They are hugely funny, and love unconditionally. Michele has a huge heart of compassion and you know she prays when she says she is praying. She has been such a gift to me. I will miss them greatly, but we know there is no time or distance in the Spirit. Our friendship will remain, it's always been rooted in the Lord.

As we talked about obedience, of leaving behind ministries - something we both have done - and moving forward to what God would have next...we talked about the bittersweetness of that. She said something that rang so true with me and that is that when we walk in obedience, we enable God to lavish His love upon us. Even in our disappointment and sorrow of leaving things behind, He is pointing to the next thing He has for us. Cheering us on.

I have felt His closeness so much in this. His love for me. He grieves over the things I grieve over. He is my champion. He is the Lord of my heart and loves who I am. He has made me to be the sensitive, tenderhearted person I am. And He guards my heart. He hurts when I hurt, but He also teaches me how to walk with Him into the unseen. He has made me to be an overcomer through Christ.

Michele and I are a lot alike in that, in being intercessors who feel things greatly. It's part of what He imparts to us in the gift of mercy, and adds to the effectiveness of our prayers. I know for both of us He has intervened and ended ministries that weren't healthy for us, for others. He teaches us through it. And when the enemy wants me to believe I have failed, wasted time, that my prayers were lost in the wind...I have to choose to believe with everything in me it's a lie. When the Spirit is leading, nothing can stop Him. He is victorious, He uses every moment. It's all about Him. My life belongs to Him, I am His slave. I trust Him with my whole heart.

God's plan for our lives is so much better than what we come up with on our own. He loves us so much. Believe it. And be grateful for those you are in ministry with - I really am. As Matt preached yesterday about us being a people of compassion to those who hate us, want nothing to do with us, I have to admit I haven't experienced that much. But I know many of us have. Some of you experience it in your own family.

I have to wonder if I'm doing all that He's called me to...and I continue to seek Him a day at a time for whatever He has next. Will the road I'm on lead me to reach those who hate Jesus? To those will hate me because of my faith? What will Detroit be like for Michele and Rick?

It's Monday and Thursday I will be in Mexico City, driving down the streets I have been praying for since God laid it on my heart to pray for the city last February. I want to see my prayers take flesh. More on that later... today I'll drive around Austin and again ask for His eyes to see and His hands to heal. For the prayers to pray that are on His heart. I'll worship Him and never stop believing Jesus Christ is the Lord of this city.