Of all the musings I’ve done over the last year none have received the response of last weeks. Apparently, a lot of us are in a place of faith. Basically rephrased, a lot of us are in a place of deep challenge. So, the good thing is that we’re in a pretty big club. It seems God is growing a lot of us in the place of our faith. And I honestly believe it is necessary for where we are headed. I believe the seasons ahead will require people of great faith. And great callings require people of great faith. So, let’s look at this season, not so much as a trial, but as an opportunity. And as a place of deep confidence that our Father must have in us, to know that He can trust us for the deep places. Remember, that’s where the most fish are caught…

But in places of great faith God is gracious to give extravagant reminders of His intense and passionate love for us as well as reveal to us that He doesn’t miss a thing. Know how I know? Well, you know I’m going to tell you…

The last two months have been an intense season for me. A season more intense than I have experienced since the beginning of my divorce. Yet in the middles of the doubts and questions and tears God settled over my heart a clear directive that it was all from Him and I could trust Him with it.

But in the middle of it I felt like He was asking me to do some house cleaning. Literally. To clean out the attic, the closets, the drawers, the garage and get rid of anything that was no longer used or was not mine. I knew this purging had a real significance for my life. Though, I’m not sure even yet the extent to what it was all for, but I knew it was necessary and I knew it had to be drastic. So, I began and it all culminated in a garage sale this past Friday.

Now, go back to my wedding day in 1994. I was sitting in the floor of my tiny apartment sharing some time with my parents, just talking when they gave me a card and my mother gave me my something old, it was her antique watch that she had bought when she was a girl. It was beautiful. And it was priceless to me. Because it was her. But in 1999 one Sunday at church the chain broke on it. Afraid it might fall off I thought I had put it in my purse. And since that day I had never seen it again. For ten years I have prayed and asked God to let me find that watch. It had been a priceless heirloom to me. And every time I moved (which was often) and every time I cleaned out a drawer, I looked for that watch.

On Friday, my dad and I were in the garage pricing items and there was a suit there was a suit there of my ex-husbands. I hated the thought of selling it for nothing and asked my dad what size he was. I looked on the inside of the jacket to see if I could see the size and I didn’t. So, I stuck my hand in the pocket of the jacket and felt something odd. I grabbed it and began to pull it out and when I got the first piece to the opening of the pocket I knew it immediately it was my watch. I can’t tell you the emotion wrapped in that. It was so great, I had to sit on the steps and have a good old fashioned “thank you Lord” cry.

There was so much wrapped up in that moment. There was the natural thought process of all of it. – The suit had never been worn since that day. It had never been sent to the dry cleaners. It was still at my house and not taken or given away. And I just decided that was the suit I would stick my hand in the pocket of. All of which was crazy! And a miracle!

But it was what it said to my heart that got me the most. That the place of purging I was in, God was right in the middle of. That when God wants you to have something He is gracious not to let you miss it. And it may seem lost to you, but nothing is lost on Him. Delay is not denial. And He will restore lost things.

That is what I speak to you today. The place of a faith may be hard. But there are things we are going to discover here that being in the old place would call us to miss. We may be asked to purge some things but oh my what God is going to give to us for our obedience despite the sacrifice. And things may seem hidden from our view, some things for a really long time, but God knows right where it is and He knows how to get it to us and He knows when it will mean the most.

You are not lost to God. He knows your name and He knows where you are. And He is testing you because He trusts you. He trusts you will stick to it. He trusts you will believe when you can’t see. He trusts you will do when you don’t know why. And in the middle of it He is going to reveal His Godness on a whole other level.

Hold on my friend…you are about to be amazed…and about to get back some lost things…