****UPDATE: Hey Siestas! Our blog maintenance has been moved and will actually happen tomorrow, Friday, March 25 at 8:30AM. Thank you for your patience!
****QUICK HEADS UP: Thursday AM, March 24 (tomorrow) at 8:30, our LPM blog will be shut down for what we anticipate being only a couple of hours. (Hopefully at most.) We are remaining right here on WordPress and right here at exactly this same address but we are switching servers to better accommodate our high volume of activity and comments. SO, if you try to get on after 8:30 AM Thursday morning and can’t connect to the page, you’ll know why. Sometimes the transition can take even a day or two but they are not anticipating that length of time. One thing is for sure, we’ll be back the moment we’re up. Until then and after then, go right ahead with your rich comments to this post!
OK, Siestas! It’s time for a pop quiz! We haven’t had one in a while. This quiz is for those of you who read many of the comments from our previous post about the moment or season of your life when you had your biggest “HE IS REAL” revelation. (The post is named “For Real” just so you can be sure you’re reading the comments to the right one.) The question conveyed on the post was about the time when you moved from believing God exists (Hebrews 11:6) to knowing (2 Timothy 1:12).
Here are the instructions for the comments to this post for those who want to participate in our pop quiz: (No other comments besides these please on this one post. This is a test. Grin.)
Write 2 observations you find yourself making based on all the testimonies you read under the post called “For Real.” There is no right or wrong answer. No pass or fail. You’re just simply saying, after reading so many of those comments, these two things seem clear to me. I’m asking for 2 observations. Not 1. Not 3. But 2. (Can you hear the classroom teacher in me coming out to play?) Testimonies are powerful things. We’re meant to be effected by what we read. So, how were you effected?
NOW, here is the very important catch: YOU MAY NOT READ ANYBODY ELSE’S OBSERVATIONS BEFORE YOU WRITE YOURS. In other words, don’t look at the comments to this post until after you’ve written your own answers. These are meant to be your observations and no one else’s. Your reflections. Your take on those testimonies. Not another Siesta’s. You are all great thinkers. Think for yourself.
I absolutely love this community. Go at it, Girls! Students, come forth!
The biggest thing that struck me was how individual the testimonies were, how diverse the circumstances and interventions.
For a second pattern I’m having to dig. The best I can come up with is that the “For Real” moments came both to Christians to revitalize or deepen faith at a time of need and to unbelievers in need of conversion.
1. God is REAL.
2. God CARES about US.
🙂
Love this!
1. No one is harder on us than ourselves. We feel the need to beat ourselves up for the most human, perfectly acceptable and understood, mistakes.
2. Most people have to hit rock bottom before they move from believing to knowing.
Many see God after they have felt He was no where around. Yet, we then see that He was with us and covering us the entire time.
God is showing himself in a tangible way on a regular basis.
1. So many “for real” moments born from struggle or hardship.
2. Awareness of God’s realness is directly proportional to the awareness of our inability. We see Him more fully, when we reach the end of ourselves.
Thanks to all who shared!
1st observation — our faith, for being such an intangible thing, grows exponentially when God shows Himself in tangible ways. I love that He knows us so well, and loves us so much, that He will use concrete experiences (from coincidences to flat out miracles) to get the message across to us. He gave us His Word so many years ago… He could’ve left it at that. But He’s active in every single life. He knows we’re weak and needy (I don’t mean that in a bad way, just that we’re prone to wander and doubt) so He speaks to us in ways we can hear and see and feel Him. What a generous and thoughtful God He is.
2nd observation — and this one brings me the biggest sense of Peace I’ve felt in a while: I know what God’s done in my life to show me He exists and He loves me, but seeing what He’s done, how Real He is in other people’s lives too… how He’s revealed Himself to so many other people too… that shows me how truly BIG He is, how powerful He really really IS. He’s the real deal. He’s there. He loves us. HE LOVES US. And that gives me so much peace. I’m so grateful to know Him.
1. God is faithful
2. God never stops pursuing us
I too am blessed and in love with this community of women.
2 Observations:
1) Incredible AWE in which He Sweeps in subtly (and not so) to reveal Himself to His children.
2)I’m not alone during times of doubt. This is very refreshing and encouraging to know.
Bless You!
1) God never seems more real than when we need Him the most, in our darkest hours. He is always with us, but we testify that He is FOR REAL when we are at our weakest.
2) There is not any circumstance that God cannot use.
Short and sweet because work is calling. God is so good!
1st observation…. we own this crucial part of our walk with the Lord when His “realness” 🙂 hits us personally.
2nd one….. it’s something that we could never be “unconvinced” of again and is so easily shared without having to say it the “right” way.
All the glory in these things goes to God!!!!
The two things that kept coming to my mind as I read some of these very real, and heart felt stories of knowing God is real were:
1. He is a God who cares about the little details in our lives.
2. He is Faithful from generation to generation and from day to day and even minute to minute.
“I will praise thee O Lord among the people and I will sing praises unto thee among the nations. For thy mercy is great above the heavens and thy truth reacheth unto the clouds. Be thou exalted O God above the heavens and thy glory above all the earth…Through God we shall do valiantly for he it is that shall tread down our enemies.” Psalm 108:3-5,13
1. God reveals Himself in our pain
2. There are a lot of awesome Christian women out there!!
Two observations on 700+ testimonies:
1. God uses trials, often very severe ones, to build our faith in Him and our dependence on Him
2. When we cry out to Him in our distress, He responds
1. He deals with each of us and our circumstances differently, but the commonality is that He is always here for us – whoever we are, wherever we are and whatever we have done.
2. The Trinity is real, and the Holy Spirit guides us, if we surrender and allow Him to show us the right path for our individual lives.
My observation:
1. Each situation was unique–some during difficult seasons, some less so, some evidences were shown through science, etc., while others were more personal.
2. Each person seemed CONVINCED based on the “evidence”. A sense of personal passion and conviction as if it was EXACTLY what she needed.
God is living and active and in every aspect of our lives from the tiniest to the biggest things. God KNOWS us and our needs. Inside and out he KNOWS! Woohoo!
1. The first thing I noticed was how many of the heart-revelations came from a period of suffering.
“My husband left me, but then God…”
“My child died, but God…”
“I received this diagnosis, then God…”
It sheds tremendous light on the verses about sharing in Christ’s suffering. No one wants suffering, but so many are so thankful for it because of how it revolutionized their relationships with Jesus. As I was reading I prayed that when suffing comes I will remember this and be thankful for God’s love and how He will reveal Himself to me through it.
2. Many of the stories involve other people, but most of the “moments” when God became real were extremely personal, individual, and while the commentor was alone. He often uses friends and family to comfort us, but often the most signifcant experiences with Him are just that- WITH HIM. This truth reminds me to first run to my sympathetic High Priest when I’m hurting, not my husband, friends, etc. Praise God that He speaks directly to our hearts.
1. So many of the testimonies that I read mentioned how God came down to them at a time of need and showed how much He loved them. He became real when they experienced His love and provision.
2. Many people mentioned permanent change in their behavior or thought patterns when they knew that God was real. Praise God!
1. Most of us know God from the personal encounters we’ve had with Him. Whether He met a physical or emotional need- we needed Him and he was there. To me this shows, once again, that God is a very personal God who is involved in the details of our lives.
2. God can take the darkest, toughest times in our lives and turn them into blessings and a testimony of His love, power and grace if we will simply turn to Him in the midst of them. He always knows better than we do!
1. Being “shaken” by some adversity in our lives is usually what precipitates our experience that God is certainly real.
2. We are left “unshakeable” on the topic of His reality afterward.
You put that so well – how true!
1. Most stories involved pain/crisis/loss.
2. God works in so many different ways.
God goes to great lengths to demonstrate His deep, personal love and care to individuals.
Believing God’s Word is key to grasping that love.
Two comments:
1. All were moved to see His ‘realness’ when He met a desparate need of theirs…financial, physical, loved ones, etc. Simply, He touched them, came beside them, and met them where they were.
2. I noticed the absence in what I read of The Word…the Bible itself…being mentioned. For me, in this season, it is the biggest supernatural reality. I wonder about this observation. In my younger years, it was His touch. Now I am most touched and anchored by His Word. I’d need to think about this some more to comment further.
Your 2nd observation is very intersting to me too.
I think your observation is true spiritual maturity. When younger in our faith, we need more visual lessons and seasoned believers to demonstrate/share/explain God’s truth and character to us. We just don’t get it on our own. Now that we have become battle-scarred ourselves our faith bank is full to draw upon and we don’t need as much help to hear God. His Word is so much clearer and often our own next breath because we are now intimately acquainted.
Thank you for your responses. I’m still thinking about this! I need and want that touch we’re reading about…and love it and get it as well. But I also love the strong, anchoring bedrock of the God-breathed Word…it is where my strength is coming from…in that daily quiet waiting and experiencing His Presence. How we love Him that He comes in His infinite, creative way into all of our lives, all of the time!
1. we all came from a place where we desperately needed to know that He is really real.
2. He is.
1.Satan my try to convince us that we are the only one who has doubts, but that is a big, fat lie. We all have doubts from time to time.
2.God wants to, and will, show himself to us.
1. God is working in our lives and making Himself known to us!
2. It’s easier to see God in miracles and when life is tough than in ‘real’ life.
Wow! I get goosebumps reading about the lover of our souls; He is wonderful!
My recurring observations are:
1. God knows what is coming and is already working on our behalf before we can even cry out to Him: He doesn’t have to wait for our prayers. This is true love.
2. He speaks today to our hearts through so many wonderful and creative ways! He is alive and constantly aware of us!
Oh, how I love Him! Christi
I LOVE how our God speaks and works for each one of us in a personal/individual way. He gets our attention in the way he knows will work for you alone.
I LOVE hearing how He works in others lives, it boosts my own faith.
1. There was surrender. Going from trying to do it themselves to trusting God to do it for them.
2. There was a leap of faith to earnestly seeking God through crying out in prayer, with the end result of God receiving the glory, not themselves.
Hmmmmm…I always do freeze up a little with tests! 🙂 I guess I’d have to say that I noticed God making Himself real to us mainly in two ways:
1. When find ourselves alone with no significant other (spouse, boyfriend, best friend, family, etc.) and He reveals Himself as the One and Only Lover of our Souls.
2. When He delivers us from the darkest place (whether it be from an entangling sin, a medical situation with no hope, etc.) and we see Him as the Light that dispells all darkness.
So…how’d I do? Do you grade on a curve? 🙂
1. Our God is a God of evidence.
2. Our God finishes what He starts.
I noticed after reading many of them, unfortunately not all of them, but 1.) Many people came to greater, ‘for real’, faith through circumstances and 2.) Through God’s Word.
Man, but to go through some of those things….whew!
1. He makes the ugly beautiful!
2. He is faithful!
I was thinking about this yesterday…
1. His “realness” to us is strengthened, or birthed, in trial.
2. At some point in life, in one way or another, to one extreme or another, we all ask that hard question of “Is He real? and is He really there..for me?”
My two observations are:
1- No matter what man says (doctors, lawyers, etc) God always has the right answer. And it’s always something unexpected.
2- That everyone has a story and they are absolutely amazing! (Thank you Beth for asking us to share all these stories and to sit back and cheer for what our Amazing God has done for others!
It makes me snicker when Mama is strict with us. 🙂
1. No one else can make God real to me, it has to be something between God & me directly, personally.
2. I wish I was in love with God, in my heart, not just believing in my head. Idk how to get there.
Hi Michele!
Have you asked God to give you that desire — to love God with your heart in addition to your head? God loves to say “yes” to that prayer! Sometimes it takes a long time and a lot of heart transformation.
Romans 12:2 NLT “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you [and your heart] into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”
I’ll be praying for you.
Yes I have, many times. I’m not good at relationships or loving people either. God is working on it & it will just take time I guess.
He will. And you are right, you will have your own personal, unique relationship with God. One tailored just for you.
Sweet Michele,
I don’t doubt for a moment that you have asked the Lord about this repeatedly. Actually, there is nothing else I request more often than for me and my family to love Him–His agape kind of love. I pray Duet 30:5, Rom 5:5 and Eph 3:17-20 again and again. I need a fresh dose each day–afterall, I leak.
Okay, you game for some outside reading? We are in classroom mode today. I believe the Lord has used some Christian fiction authors to awaken my heart to His intense, personal love. Call me shallow, but picture me smiling.
Joyce Landorf’s “I came to Love You Late”
Francine River’s “Redeeming Love” and “The Mark of the Lion” series
That’s enough to get you started. I keep these around, so just email me and they’ll wander on up to NY.
ME TOO, Michelle….how to we get there and stay there, not just for a few short moments here and there?
These are so good, Sisters! I love all of them so far and keep thinking about the one that says we have to own what we know once He’s revealed Himself so outlandishly and faithfully. Yes, yes, yes.
1. When we reach the end of ourselves
2. When we see God’s presence in our lives in a very personal way…something no one else could accomplish or know.
1. Others have gone through more difficult circumstances than I have. No pity parties!
2. There is NO situation, hardship, drama or tragedy that God cannot redeem. Ahhh Praise, praise, praise.
Frist observation was…WOW everybody has been down some rough roads. So I felt like these ladies knew what they are talking about.
Second observation was…I am not alone. God is doing things in me…I just didn’t take the time to see that He really is REAL to even me. God is so much Bigger that I could ever imagine.
1. My life sometimes feels like a train wreck but God has not left me alone and He always has an answer.
2. The earth truly is groaning under the weight of difficulty but we are the fortunate ones that serve a mighty God who cares for each of us personally.
People know that God is real because they have seen miracles in their own lives, or the lives of someone they know, particularly healing (physical, spiritual, emotional, mental, relationships, etc.) They also see how He cares about the smallest details of their lives.
People believe that God is real even when He does not give them what they have asked for, or they don’t feel His presence, because they know His Word is truth and they stand on the Word, knowing His ways are much higher and better than ours, and that He is faithful and will never leave us or forsake us.
1) God uses all sorts of ways to get our attention — each designed specifically to meet us in our personal needs and situations and bring us closer to Himself. God loves us each uniquely!
2) People can go a looonnngg time between believing in God and believing God is who He says He is, without realizing how much they’re missing.
1. God speaks and empowers through Scripture.
2. When one experiences God so personally, that believer gains a whole lot of boldness.
2 observations I made from reading through numerous “testimonies” were:
1- God ALWAYS answers
2- Many times He waits until we are “ready” for His answer
1. Our trials serve a purpose in our lives
2. No matter our pain, our moment, our struggle, or happiness God is still God and He is always there.
1. Strength!!! Wow, are these women strong or what! With the strength of God…They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
2. Blessed. Not by their situation or crisis they have been through, but by the fact that they all know that they couldn’t have made it without the all-powerful love and support of our beloved Father.
Beeth, after reading so many of these comments, these two things seem clear to me:
1. The reason our great and merciful God “shows up” so often when we need Him is because He was really there all along.
2. We can’t hear His voice if we don’t listen for it.
Margie
Hilton Head
1. Life experiences, while difficult, bring us to a real relationship with God.
2. God still works miracles.
The two observations I see are:
1. God is madly in love with His children…His bride…His people. So much so that He will pursue us until there is no doubt – even bringing us to our lowest point so that He can prove Himself to us.
2. God is alive and active today. He is moving among His people…earnestly drawing them ever closer to Him and Truth setting them free!