How amazing is Our God?!

When Austin was living with us, (you can read about other posts here and here) we were working on Step 3 in the AA program. This step is this: "Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of GOD as we understood Him." This step was difficult for Austin because he continued to say that he did not understand how to surrender to God. Austin was in such pain and agony and he continued to say that he didn't know how to do it. We read Psalm 25 together a lot, and it truly spoke to Austin. I will copy this Psalm for you to also read, and maybe it will help you to turn your life over to God, and surrender.

Psalm 24: 4-21

4 Show me your ways, LORD,

teach me your paths.

⁵ Guide me in your truth and teach me,

for you are God my Savior,

and my hope is in you all day long.

⁶ Remember, LORD, your great mercy and love,

for they are from of old.

⁷ Do not remember the sins of my youth

and my rebellious ways;

according to your love remember me,

for you, LORD, are good.

⁸ Good and upright is the LORD;

therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.

⁹ He guides the humble in what is right

and teaches them his way.

¹⁰ All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful

toward those who keep the demands of his covenant.

¹¹ For the sake of your name, LORD,

forgive my iniquity, though it is great.

¹² Who, then, are those who fear the LORD?

He will instruct them in the ways they should choose.^[b]

¹³ They will spend their days in prosperity,

and their descendants will inherit the land.

¹⁴ The LORD confides in those who fear him;

he makes his covenant known to them.

¹⁵ My eyes are ever on the LORD,

for only he will release my feet from the snare.

¹⁶ Turn to me and be gracious to me,

for I am lonely and afflicted.

¹⁷ Relieve the troubles of my heart

and free me from my anguish.

¹⁸ Look on my affliction and my distress

and take away all my sins.

¹⁹ See how numerous are my enemies

and how fiercely they hate me!

²⁰ Guard my life and rescue me;

do not let me be put to shame,

for I take refuge in you.

²¹ May integrity and uprightness protect me,

because my hope, LORD, is in you.

I have been in such awe of how God has already been working through this horrific event. I truly wish I could sit down with every single one of you who are reading this and share with you all the emails I have received and all the words people have shared. I have received words of love, prayer and encouragement. What dropped me to my knees this morning were all the emails I have received from some of you. I am blown away by how God is already using Austin's story to change your faith, and ultimately draw you closer to Him. He is doing just the same in me as well.

How truly astonishing that the Creator of the world, Father of Austin, would use this situation and bring goodness from it. Not that in anyway God caused this situation to happen, because that would be false. Sin has entered the world and because of that sin, we are separated from God, and it is also because of that sin that we see the pain, hurt, and death in this world. But please, have hope dear reader, that it is because of the love of our Father, that He sent His only Son to die a death that we deserved, so that He could be in relationship with us. I can only begin to imagine the sacrifice that was.

It is also because of His love and His goodness that He took this horrific situation with Austin, and turned it for His Glory. I have received word from some of you that God has used this testimony of Austin's life to rejuvenate your faith, and draw you into a deeper surrender to our Lord. Others of you, I have received emails from you that God has used Austin's testimony to reconnect Himself with you, after guilt, shame and fear has drawn you away. And from even more of you, I have been reading that God has used, in just this short amount of time, Austin's story to connect you with a God that you never knew before. HOW AMAZING IS OUR GOD!?

I woke up this morning to another email from one of you, and again it just floored me. I could do nothing than to drop to my knees in praise to my Father for how He is working.

Thank you all so very much for sharing with me how God is working in your life through this situation. Please continue to share, it is truly blessing my soul.