When the Lord Calls You By Name

This morning I work up to hear a new song that I have recently learned about. It's called "Abraham", and it's written by Josh Baldwin from Bethel. I absolutely love the story of Abraham in the Bible. He is counted as a righteous man, and received one of the most noted promises in the Bible.

                       "Then He (God) brought him outside and said, 'Look now toward heaven,
                      and count the stars if you are able to number them.' And He (God) said to
                      him,'So shall your descendants be.' And he (Abraham) believed in the
                      Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness." Genesis 15:5-6

While we read this story and stand in awe of such a promise, we forget many times that Abraham had YET to have a son. He strictly had to believe that what God had promised him was true, and that it would come to fruition despite every external circumstance in his life.


Many years ago, I was attending a dance worship conference. I loved watching the women wave their flags and banners in worship to the Lord. It was beautiful to watch! Ricky and I were engaged, and at one point during worship, Ricky saw a picture of me in his head. I was dressed in white, and I had a child with me. Ricky said that the Lord spoke to him and told him that my womb was blessed!!!!

At this point, I remember that scaring me a little bit. I was not sure what that meant. And while I was absolutely in love with this man of mine, I wasn't sure how I felt about having children. The Lord had just begun to show me that it was part of His plan for us when we got married. He had just begun to change my heart towards having children. But I believed the Lord, and I knew my Father. If He said it, it would happen.


Fast forward to last January, 2016. At this time I had 6 beautiful children, and we were in the process of adopting 3 more. The Lord had done such a miraculous work in our short years of marriage. His journey had been so unique up to this point, and I had learned to just roll with it. The fact is, I trusted my Daddy. He had walked us through many miracles thus far. So while I couldn't always anticipate what He would tell us next, I trusted His plan. Because one of our current 6 was adopted, the Lord had grown such a heart in Ricky and I for orphans. Hosting orphans from Ukraine the years previous to that had also grown our hearts.


So, here I sat at Bible study, with a group of beautiful woman, and the Lord spoke yet again. He told me that I would be a mother to the motherless. I immediately began to cry. Right there at the table. I knew it was Him. And my spirit jumped within me. I knew that for the rest of my days, this would be something that would be part of my life. And I was no longer scared. I was EXCITED!


You see, when God calls you by name, it is just about the best thing in the world. When God gave Abraham his promise, he had no idea how so many descendants would be brought about. He just believed God. And while I am currently a mama to 3 children who were not born to me, and have fostered 5 children thus far, I believe His plan will continue to go places that I cannot even anticipate. In fact, very recently I felt the Lord encourage me that some of those that I "mother" would not be physical orphans, but those spiritually needing a mama as well. When God calls you by name, it is life altering. It is an absolute great adventure!


So, dear friends, what has God spoken over you? What promises has He written over your heart? The truth is, He has called you by name! He has incredible purpose over your life. And He is not hiding from you. He wants you to know what you were created to do, and He wants you to walk in it.


On a side note, can I say this? Sometimes we as believers feel like others have really big callings, and what God has called us to do seems so small. Can I encourage you? What God has called you to do is HUGE, and was uniquely given to you. Your impact will affect the world. You never know who your life is impacting right now, today. The person you are working next to, the patient you are treating, the children you are raising, or the man you pass by in the grocery store. Our life is meant to be a display of the GLORY and GOODNESS of God, not us. And if we do it well, we are impacting the world, friends. We are.

Love,
Monica:)

Two Mites

While we were in Honduras, we spent the first few days doing really neat things. We visited a natural hot spring, and saw some really beautiful Spanish influenced churches. We had also spent some time in a children's home called Miqueas 6:8. We so enjoyed running around with the kids, meeting the beautiful people who ran the home, and learning more about their stories. It really was like a dream of my heart coming true. But in the middle of it all I noticed something. Something was missing. I was going through the motions, but I wasn't being myself.

In these past few years God has been doing a beautiful work in me. Slowly, but surely He has stripped me of deep things in my heart that I didn't even know were there. Fear. Pride. Anxiety. A sense of keeping up appearances. And God began replacing them with truth. The Unshakeable kind. The kind that comes as God lays your foundation. And because of these changes, I had begun to come out of my shell. I was stepping out and praying for people, believing God to do for them what He has done for me. I had grown this dependency on God that brought such Joy to my heart. Whatever He wanted, I wanted...it's what drew me to Honduras in the first place. I heard Him whisper the name of Honduras into my prayer over the last 2 years, and I wanted to see what it was all about:)

Anyway, so here I am, in the beautiful country of Honduras, and I felt like I was just GOING THROUGH THE MOTIONS... And that, my friends, was just not going to do. I realized I could literally go through this entire trip, do the ''nice things'' every person wants to do on a missions trip, and leave mainly unaffected. So very early Tuesday morning, I asked Ricky if I could go outside (into this beautiful, lush landscape, by the way:) and I began to talk to Jesus. I told Him I knew something was missing. And I asked Him to talk to me about it. So I opened my Bible and I landed on Luke 21.

                 "And He (Jesus) looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury,

                and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites. So He said, Truly I

                I say to you that the poor widow has put in more than all; for all of these out of 

                their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in

                all the livelihood that she had."vs.1-4

And I felt like God stopped me in my tracks. See, because we have had so many children, and then adopted, fostered, and gone on this wild adventure of a missions trip so shortly after we returned from Ukraine, many people have labeled us as radical. And sometimes, friends, I have agreed with it. I have actually thought.."hey, we are doing pretty good, giving our YES to the Lord whenever He calls.." So we are living the Christian life, right? Except, when God stops you, and shows you that you aren't actually laying it all down. Out of my abundance I have given, but not out of my poverty.

 The thing is, the Lord laid down His ALL. He gave His life for me. And I have more to give. Only the Lord and I know what my ALL actually consists of, and I felt the Lord challenge me. He encouraged me and lovingly showed me that there were places in my life in which I wasn't giving my all. And for everyone, that will look different. But as soon as I decided to give it to Him, I immediately felt the difference. As tired as I was (my eyes gave me away:), I took the picture up top to remind myself everyday that I want to give my all, my TWO mites away. Because if there is one thing I have learned, it's that when you give the Lord something, HE makes the most incredibly beautiful things with it.

Love,

Monica<3