God Makes Me Smile

I am reading through Exodus. In chapter 14 I am struck by the graciousness of God to tell the Israelites that Pharaoh and his army are going to "pursue them." And encourages them, "But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord." (V.4)

Seriously! How awesome of God to prepare them. But...  what happens? They don't listen or forget or something. When Pharaoh starts pursuing they freak out. But seriously, don't you and I do the same thing?! He promises us things... "in this world you will have trouble"... "Go, make disciples of all nations... and lo I am with you always..." And we freak out when it's in our face.

Good thing God knows how to continually motivate us, move us, speak to us. We are desperately dependent on Him, good thing He makes Himself available to us.

I put together a helpful tool to help people discern and be confident in God's Will. 
And since I talk a lot about  how to and how not to discern God's voice in the link above, I'm just going to share a neat story. I think God takes great pleasure in communicating with us, in surprising us and showing off in neat ways.

Here's my new Bible.

Here's my old Bible, the reason I needed a new Bible.

God Shows Off

I went to the Christian bookstore and of course there were so many to choose from. I was narrowing it down to the version I wanted (I like to do a different version than the one I had before) and then went from there. I was asking God which one He would like me to have. Finally I found the one I wanted. I had pulled it off the shelf and looked through it and decided this was the one. But something nagged at me. No, I want more crinkles on the cover. So I looked at all the covers staring at me from the display case and I decided on the one on the top shelf corner.
 
I pulled it down and took it out of the see through box.

At the bottom of the box was a handwritten small piece of paper with nothing but LAURA written on it. I am so thankful to serve a God who not only knows how to make me smile but also does.

Here it is

Laura, the creator and host of Missional Women is married and has four kids, two of whom are adopted. Laura and her husband have been missionaries to college students for 11 years serving with Master Plan Ministries. Laura is the Staff Women's Development Coordinator and has discipled over 150 girls, led over 30 Bible studies and speaks 10-20 times a year. Laura is an award winning author of a 12 week Bible Study on First Samuel, Beholding Him, Becoming Missional, recently released Reach; How to Use Your Social Media Influence for the Glory of God, and A Devotional Journey through Judges, a devotional to accompany the free online Bible study at TheBookofJudges.com. You can find her on facebook,twitter, pinterest and youtube.

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