God Dots

I am in the very privileged (and often terrifying) role of leading a large group of women on a weekly basis. I am a women's pastor (but let's just use the word 'pastor' loosely, shall we?) and I love this more than any other thing I've done. There is nothing like the power of women when they converge in a group. There is nothing like the power of a woman, period.

Week after week I was seeing women starting out strong in bible study but as the busyness life happened, they began to drop off. I quickly realized that when life is overwhelming, women will cut something for themselves just to be able to manage. It just seems easiest. That way, no one gets hurt.

Right?

But is that the truth? Is cutting time away from girlfriends and fellowship with God really the very best solution we have? Isn't bible study the one thing that we do for ourselves that guarantees to fill us up and send us out into each week fully armed? So doesn’t cutting that out hurt us?

Or, is bible study just one more thing we do? We do it because we should, or out of guilt. We do it because one of our girlfriends said she would do it if we would and now we are stuck. Maybe a busy life is the perfect reason to get out of a commitment we made with only half our hearts.

I realized that one of the primary reasons we don't connect with bible study is that we approach it as if it's a history book, full of great stories and bumper-sticker wisdom. We believe in God. But do we believe He's here now? Is He an active participant in our daily lives? For most of us the answer is a resounding no.

This is a tragedy! I know what you are going to say. "I've tried bible study and I just get nothing out of it." or "Quiet time? Have you been to my house? There is nothing quiet about it." Or the worst one…"I just didn't have time this week."

But here is what you need to know. You don't need to do ANY of that and God will still be active in your life! He is working and moving in your life every day, whether you engage with Him or not. Because you don’t see it, you aren’t blessed by it.

How do I know? I used to wonder, too. I had doubts. So I started to look for God in my everyday. I wanted to see and feel Him. I had to connect the dots between my life and God. 

The result? I heard about a job opening the same day a girlfriend called and said she needed a job. When my daughter's car broke down for good, I got a raise at work that helped with a new car payment we weren't expecting. I read a verse in my bible and then ran into someone who was comforted by it.  I prayed for something in the morning and it happened that afternoon! These God Dots were blowing my mind!

God Dots. Whether they are big or small they are evidence that God is at work. He is moving. He is active in MY life.

Once I started connecting Dots, they came easier and easier. The result? I started to feel full of the Holy Spirit. I felt flooded with God’s goodness. I can’t wait to find the Dots each day! I dig in to bible study now more than ever because it heightens my awareness of God and the Dots. And when life gets hard, I use these Dots as fuel to push myself further, depend on Him harder, to stand stronger and to be brave longer. Because I know He isn’t going anywhere. He’s sticking with me.

He’s sticking with you, too. You just need to connect the Dots.

I’d love to hear some of your Dots stories! Please share them with me below!