Grace's Space: Here I Am

So I just sat down to write this and the song on the radio seems to sum up exactly where I am right now. The song is "Here I Am" by Downhere.  It talks about giving my life as an offering and that God takes my brokenness and redeems it. This seems to be what's happening in my life right now. God is so good! I rejoice often in how He has taken my brokenness and continually uses it, and makes it beautiful.

This morning I went to mom's group. As I was encouraging my children to enter the building, one of my friends came through. She seemed really down today. How well I understand that!  This week has been particularly challenging and I have started crying several times, saying "I can't do this, I can't do this".  After the study, as I was chatting with my friend, I realized that she might be under spiritual attack. It turned out that she was supposed to lead a Bible study this evening. Whenever I am involved in ministry, or even just doing what God wants me to do, I come under attack, often so badly that I need Steve to pray for me, because I can no longer pray for myself.  So my friends and I stopped and prayed together asking God to protect our friend. For me, this was a huge encouragement. To see God using my brokenness and all my struggles that I would be able to understand and come alongside a hurting friend. I am reminded that God cares about us intimately.

Two weeks ago, I had another cool experience. Once again, I am involved in youth ministry. This is our fifth year of working with the youth. However, this year I am serving with both Lincoln Road Chapel (LRC) and with LifeSpring Christian Fellowship. While I was praying about serving with LRC again, we were away at a youth retreat with both youth groups. After one of the sessions, I ended up talking and praying with a young lady for over an hour. During that time, God took all my struggles with following after God as a teen and enabled me to understand and speak truth to my young friend.

I'm trying to find the words to summarize this nicely and I just can't. I'm blown away by God's goodness! Every time He uses me to speak into someone's life, or pray with someone, I'm overwhelmed with amazement. My life has been utterly transformed in the last six years and all I can do is stand here with my arms lifted in praise. Our God is so good!