SueAnn Porter

certain things that I write in my blog are also going into one of my two manuscripts that I am currently working on. {Editor: You just ended that sentence with a preposition.} The content is cleaned up and reused or recycled.

The blog gives me the freedom to free write and usually silences the editor/critic, except when it doesn’t. {Editor: This sentence is unnecessary.}

This is my place where I think, and the thoughts come out through my fingers on the keyboard. Sometimes I don’t publish the post; it sits in the Draft box for years. That’s okay too; it helps me think and maybe some of it is just too personal, okay? {Editor: Can you get to the point?}

So the point is, yesterday I watched a program about Dreams and Mysteries, the series which was hosted by John Paul Jackson. (He has since gone on to be with the Lord.) {Editor: You still haven’t gotten to the point.} The subject of the program was how sometimes we are promised things by God, and the answers don’t manifest in the time period that we think they should, or in the way that we think they should.  [There’s my point, Editor!]  There are times when we are sure someone is going to be healed, but they die. That’s not our definition of healing, is it? But if they know the Lord, they die and go into the next world to be with the Lord, and they are happy, healthy and whole, and we know we will see them again.

Genesis 17:5 says:

No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations.

Abraham did have many descendants, but there were not many nations until after his death.

We read about this fulfillment in the New Testament:

¹⁶ Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all ¹⁷ (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”^[a]) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; ¹⁸ who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.” –Romans 4:16-18

Abraham believed God, and although the promise wasn’t 100% fulfilled during Abraham’s life on earth, it is still being fulfulled today.

Second point: God expects us to use whatever is in our hand. Exodus 4:1-4

4 Then Moses answered and said, “But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you.’”

² So the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”

He said, “A rod.”

³ And He said, “Cast it on the ground.” So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. ⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail” (and he reached out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand),

Moses obeyed God and took the rod in his hand, which was not a great weapon against the King of Egypt, and threw it down so God turned it into a serpent. God could have done it while it was still in Moses’ hand, but usually God wants our participation in the miracle, not just us waiting for something to fall out of the sky.  Even before God parted the Red Sea, He told Moses to lift his staff, and Moses obeyed.  Then God parted the Red Sea.

{Editor: And, your point is?} [Hey, Editor, you just started a sentence with “And”. What kind of Editor are you? hahaha.]

I’ve learned that I can only work with what I have. I can’t feed every child on the planet, but I can sponsor one and pray for many.

My son has been working part time for a retail store which only hires managers full time. He had been searching for a full time job, but the door hadn’t opened yet. He said that the store wanted him to come in earlier, 6 am, to unload the trucks. At first he said no, but with the weather getting warmer and the sun rising earlier, he decided to do it. As soon as he told the manager he would come in earlier, he got offered a job at a different company full time. He used what was in his hands to work with, and the door opened.

So you probably already know that what I write in my blog is fodder for future books. As I walk, crawl, and swim, er, tread water, I’m trying to remember what is going on, so that at a future date, it will make sense when I look back at the past with the 20/20 goggles.

{Editor: I think we’re done here.}

[Yes, yes, we are. Adios.]

#memoir