There is a beautiful concept and question that I’ve been asking myself lately, and it’s, “Lisa, are you choosing God?” You know, it really delights God’s heart when we look at Him instead of our circumstances. But that’s very much easier said than done, right? Because every single one of us have asked that question when we’re in the middle of everything looking like it’s so bad. We all ask that question, “Why, God? Why?” You know, “Why did this happen? God, why didn’t you do something about it? Why did it go this way?” And every single one of us have asked that question.
Well, my husband and I took a huge step of faith. There was a big decision that we needed to make and we had a word from the Lord, we acted. I mean, we thought we were moving somewhere. We unpacked our house, we gave things away. We sold things to the point where we were just really stepping out in faith. We had this word, we had confirmations all along the way, and we were stepping out in faith. All the things you think you should do, right? And it came to the point where the decision time was made, and we found out that all of these steps that we’d done didn’t actually work out the way we thought they would. And we were devastated. We were absolutely devastated, as most of us are when we get to the point where we’re asking that question, “Why, God? Why?” Right? Because things matter. Our emotions are involved. There’s all sorts of circumstances around us involved. People are involved. Our hopes and our dreams are all put into this one result happening. And when it doesn’t, it can really cause us to lose our faith.
Well, at that time, what happened to us is we just, we just cried for three days. We were so heartbroken, and so not knowing what to do next, right? Because when you put all your eggs in one basket and it doesn’t happen and you don’t know what to do next, it’s devastating. And so we just got down on our faces and we’re like, “Lord, tell us what’s happening.” And after three days, we heard something from the Holy Spirit. He told us and gave us a direction. And actually what had happened was not that the event hadn’t happened the way we thought, but that our hearts were in the wrong place. And just as God so beautifully does, He would not let us go forward with our hearts in the wrong place. And so quickly, we did what the topic of this video is, and we switched from focusing all of our attention on the circumstance and focusing it back on Him and choosing God. And we said to Him, “You know what, Lord? Regardless of how this turns out, regardless of the way it’s happened, what our hopes and thoughts and dreams were, what we’ve done, what you’ve done, we choose you because we know that you have chosen us.”
And the beauty of this verse is in Isaiah 50:7. I’m going read it to you from the Amplified. It says, “For the Lord GOD helps me. Therefore, I have not been ashamed or confounded. Therefore, I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.” This is the beauty of what happens when we turn our faces to God and we go, “I will not change the subject. I believe you, no matter what the circumstances look like.”
So wherever you are at in life, whatever’s going on in your life, I pray, and I thank you Lord, that you have got good plans for this person, that as they choose you, and it delights your heart that they choose you, no matter what’s going on around them, no matter how devastating they think the circumstances are, if they don’t turn out the way they think, that as they turn their face and focus on you like flint, they will not be ashamed. And you will answer their prayers and they’ll see the goodness and the kindness of the way bigger picture that you have for them than they can see right now.
And you know what, friends? Our situation completely turned around after that. When we turned our faces towards God, He brought the same thing that we were praying for around in a totally different way than we could have imagined. It took seven years. It was a way longer process, more beautiful. But the beauty of it was that our hearts were changed. Our hearts went towards Him instead of the circumstances. So I bless you with that; as your face goes towards God, that you’ll see His goodness because you chose Him.