A Surprise Ending

God often reveals to us only what we need to know to take us to a particular point in His plan for us and only after we've taken that first step will He tell us what we need to know to get to the next step.

~Tony Evans, "God, Do You Really Care?"

Can I get an Amen on that?

I'm not much on surprises. I like to know how things are going to end. So, the fact that God rarely shares the ending with me is more than a tad frustrating. Well, I do know The Ending...praising Jesus in Heaven forever and ever Amen and Hallelujah. But the endings to certain situations...He's pretty tight-lipped about that. As irritating mysterious as it may be, it's also pretty exciting when God finally reveals what He's been up to.

This week, God's begun to give me glimpses of what He's been working on in my life. Unlike Dorothy's discovery that the Wizard was really just an old man behind a curtain, I'm seeing that my Abba has been doing some pretty amazing things in secret.

When He asked me to give up buying books for a year, it made no sense. Of course I knew it would help my pocketbook, but I didn't see that such a sacrifice could make a significant difference in my life. I was wrong. Putting my love of books/reading into His hands required faith and a dependence on Him. He has been more faithful that I could've ever imagined. I'll share more later this week, but I have been blessed with books, books, and more books since I made that commitment. God wanted to show me that if He's faithful in the little things, He'll also be faithful in the big things. He's opened my eyes to see that when I sacrifice something in His Name, He fills that void with Himself. And it's so much more satisfying than what I'm able to fill it with on my own.

I shared here the realization that I wouldn't see more of Him unless I obeyed Him in the earthly things. I could sense that He wanted to speak some Heavenly things to me, but I didn't know what they were. I kept trying (and sometimes, failing) to follow the earthly commands He was speaking.

It's starting to make sense to me now. I felt a stirring in my heart that started with this post and continued with this one. It is, without a doubt, a MAJOR surprise to me. In fact, if I'd seen the ending first, I may have run in another direction.

Friends, I am praying for confirmation like never before. When I have it, I'll share all the glorious details with you.