The Driver

First let me start by saying I love when God talks to me. I pray a lot and I ask God to reveal things to me and to speak to me. I think if you want God to talk to you, you need to be open to it and you need to ask him to speak to you.

When we ride the motorcycle, I pray and ask God to keep us safe. I talk to God a lot on the motorcycle. We don’t have a radio and I find myself just talking to God and praying over mine and my husband’s lives. Last night I asked God to speak to me, to give me something for this blog. He did.

My husband and I took his motorcycle out last night.I was sitting with my head directly  his and I couldn’t see what was ahead on the road. Normally I lean my head over a little to see but the wind was too much on the highway to do that. I thought well it is okay that I cannot see what is ahead I trust him. BOOM   God spoke and said this is exactly how it is supposed to be with our relationship. A born again believers we are supposed to let God be the pilot and we are to be the co-pilots. When you are a passenger on a motorcycle you cannot “fight” the driver. You lean when he leans. You sit there holding on, not pulling or pushing or trying to be in control. If you do not follow those protocols you can make the driver wreck the motorcycle.

That is also similar with our walk with God. We shouldn’t fight, we should be in sync with God and move when he moves. We don’t want our “motorcycle” to go down because we didn’t go with the driver but wanted to be in control and fought the driver.

When you are a passenger on a motorcycle, you also cannot look behind you, you can make the bike go down. That is also true with our walk with God. You cannot dwell on the past. You are moving forward. There is no reverse on a motorcycle. The driver can back up, turn around and go forward but he cannot put the bike in reverse and go backwards. We don’t want to go backwards, we want to move forward.

The enemy will try to distract you and make you dwell on your past to wreck you and keep you from moving forward. He will make you fear what is ahead because you cannot see that. Your driver (God) can see where you are going and he has planned the course. He knows what lies ahead, He can see the bumps, the potholes and the roads to take next. You’re job is to move when God moves and not to fight His will.

We may feel the future is dim and isn’t promising. It may look like the storm isn’t going to be over anytime soon. Trust your driver to take you through that storm. He will not leave you or forsake you. He will hold you and love you.

My husband will pay my hand every once in a while to see if I’m still there and if I’m doing okay. I will squeeze him to let him know I am okay and that everything is okay. It makes me feel safe and loved when he does that. God is like that too. We may not think He can see us or knows we are there then He gives us that assurance that He is there.

Proverbs 3:5 & 6 “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”

God wants us to trust Him. He wants us to not do things our own way because we will fail. He will lead us and direct us.

I challenge you and myself this week to ask God to help you let him be in the driver’s seat and that you can trust Him with all your heart. Pray that verse and speak it. Find a verse and cling to it. God will move mountains and He will not fail you. He loves us.

God Bless! Love from above,

Iva Mae

God’s Will?

I recently read a verse in my bible that reached out of the page and slapped me. It cut me. It made me angry because I knew it was true.

The verse was 1 Thessalonians 5:18 “In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”

I read that and thought oh yah?!? Really?!?! I should be thankful for all the crap we have been going through recently?! This is stupid! I am not thankful for this pain, the burdens, the worrying or anything else! I was angry. I was not happy. I was full of rage. My husband was upset and feeling down and when he hurts I feel the pain. I hate to seem him upset. It kills me. I just wanted to hold him and take all the pain away and make it better but I couldn’t.

I couldn’t understand why God would allow us to have our “bottom” fall out. One thing after another kept happening. I got pregnant then lost the baby. Kyle left his job of 2 years for another job that was supposed to give great benefits and supposed to be great, and it wasn’t. My car decided that it no longer wanted to be alive and started falling apart and we didn’t have the money to fix it. My husband was struggling with not feeling like he was a provider and feeling upset about his job situation. The devil had launched a full blown attack on our home and I was angry at God for it. Even writing this makes me feel embarrassed that I was mad at the wrong person. It’s like DUH IVA!! Hello McFly!!

That is what Satan does. He uses smoke and mirrors to distract us. He is really good at his job. We have to be ready for him. We’re constantly in war. He will do whatever he can to destroy us from doing what we are called to do for God. He doesn’t want us to succeed. He wants to use our failures, past sins, downfalls and mistakes as ways to keep us from moving forward. He will bring up the past and make you feel like God can’t forgive you of your sins. John 10:10 “The thief (Satan) cometh not, but to steal, and to kill and to destroy…”

The bible clearly states that Satan has come to steal. He will steal things like your joy, your peace of mind, your happiness, your health, your finances and whatever else he can get his grimy nasty claws on. He will kill your ministry, your relationships, and try to take your life.He ultimately wants to destroy you.

The second part of John 10:10 says …I (Christ) have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

Jesus died for us so that we could live. He was tortured and beaten for you and me. He performed miracles, including calming the raging sea.

I’ve seen little pictures and blurbs around the internet that say Jesus either calms the storm or he calms his child. I think that sometimes he does both.

I’ve always loved the stories in the bible where Jesus calmed the storms. They are some of my favorite ones. Matthew 8:23-27 talks about such an instance. Verse 24 says “And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but he was asleep.”

I love that last part, but he was asleep. The storms were raging, the boat was filling with water, fears were high, there was chaos all around and Jesus was asleep. The next verse talks about how the disciples awoke him and said Jesus save us!!! He immediately said (vs 26)”…Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.”

Sometimes it seems like God doesn’t see what we are going through. It feels like he doesn’t care and that he is a million miles away. That isn’t true. He does care and he will help you through these storms and give you the strength you need to get through. Sometimes he is quiet. I’ve always heard that a teacher is quiet during a test.

When I was about 5 years old, I was outside swinging on my swing set like most 5 year old girls like to do. I probably had a stuffed animal and had been picking dandelions. A drunk man came from the back of our property and came up close to the house where I was swinging. He didn’t say anything. He just looked at me and my danger alarms started going off. I started screaming to the top of my lungs for my Daddy. My mom came out and the guy kept walking and walked down the road. My Dad wasn’t there, he was at church that evening. Even though my Daddy wasn’t there, I wanted him because I knew he would keep me safe. He went through the park minutes later when he got back home and kicked ever beer can he could find looking for that man.

When I was about 6 we went Easter egg hunting in the park. My Daddy took me and they lined all of the kids up on the spray painted line. They blew the whistle signaling the start of the hunt. All the kids took off. I did too because I was so excited to get some candy and stickers. That didn’t happen though. Most of the kids started pushing and shoving other kids. Every egg I reached for someone took. Someone even took an egg right out of my hand. My Daddy came over to me and grabbed my hand and walked me back to the truck and we went home. He had enough of that and he could see me getting upset.

God is that way too. He sees what we’ve gone through. Just because he doesn’t come when you first call for him to save you doesn’t mean that he doesn’t hear you or that he doesn’t care. Daddys are good for holding our hands and holding us making us feel safe. Even to this day I still feel that love and that his arms are a safe place to be when he hold me.

God answered mine and Kyle’s prayers and our bottom isn’t falling out anymore. All the hardships and all the tears shed and the worry and fear and anger is mostly gone. We always worry a little too much about some things, but for the most part God has given us that peace that passeth all understanding. There isn’t understanding sometimes.

My husband Kyle got an opportunity to work for a Christian man. This man and his wife are wonderful people. He gets to work with two other guys who are also Christians. They pray before going to work and get devotions to read. God laid this job in our laps. I love divine plans. His timing is truly perfect. I also got a new car thanks to my parents. They are amazing and bless me. God has blessed us so much! The other prayer that we have been praying about, a baby, hasn’t happened yet but if it is God’s will it will. It will be perfect as well.

May God bless you all!

Iva Mae