God is so so so good!! I cannot stop saying how good and gracious God has been to me over the past two weeks! I am blown away at God's faithfulness and gentleness towards me. I started MTSU January 17 and a few days before that I started a temporary job at the bookstore at MTSU. God has just been handing things to me without me doing a thing. It's all grace! He has put different people in my life even just for a split second or two weeks in order to encourage me and fan the flame in me! I went to CRU and was so encouraged by some of the older girls there, a guy I worked with from Illinois encouraged me by his life of faith and desire for Jesus and to do something meaningful in order to live in a constant state of worship to God, people in my classes that love Jesus, professors that are pretty easy and light hearted, and the list goes on. God has been so gracious to me through this transition back home and starting a new school. It's been such a refreshing fresh start. Everytime I put my headphones in my ears to listen to music this song never fails to come on even when I shuffle it several times…"not for a moment" by vertical church. In this song it talks about how God never leaves or forsakes us. It mentions how God is working even when we cannot see! That has been so true for me this year. God has been working behind the scenes and showing me His faithfulness even though I don't deserve any of it. I simply cannot get over the fact that God is so good and so faithful! I also cannot get over the fact of how He is actively moving amongst my peers, both those I am very close to and those that I am not as close to! He is transforming hearts and drawing hearts closer to His to beat accordingly and in unicen.
On top of all this super cool stuff God is doing I have been quite discouraged with the whole idea of raising $12,000. Let's be honest, that is a large and daunting number. On my way to school Friday I was praying and confessing how discouraged I was to God and choosing to lay it all down and trust God with all the funds. Then I asked God to tangibly show me that He is providing even if it is through a random person or random circumstance. I just prayed that God would tangibly show me that He will come through even in the most unexpected ways. YES, GOD DID JUST THAT!!!! After my last class I was sitting in our student union building eating lunch before I had to clock in for work. A familiar face walked by and stopped. The guy who stopped by me was a guy I had class with one time freshman year of high school and does not believe in Jesus. I asked him to sit with me and we caught up on life. He asked what I was doing at MTSU and so of course I went into my little spew of why I came back home, in order to save money for a 9 month mission trip. He was not surprised that I was choosing to do this, which was encouraging. Then we changed the subject and were talking about our majors, as most college kids do for a lack of nothing else better to talk about. Halfway through this new conversation, he pulled out his wallet and said "I want to give you what I have and wish you the best of luck." He gave me $9!! I so wanted to cry. Instead I smiled ear to ear and said thank you thank you thank you!!! He looked a little freaked out, I mean it's only $9!! BUT it's the fact that God just answered my prayer in an unexpected way!!! So, I was so excited, not about the $9, but that God used this guy which was so unexpected!! THEN, I walk in my house after work and saw that I had mail, which is not often. I open the envelope not knowing who it was from. When I opened it up money fell out and it was from a girl that I met in Chattanoogas grandmother whom I have never met. Yet another unexpected way that God has shown me that He is providing!!!!! Seriously, I am so blown away already! God is doing some very cool things that are so unexpected and He is tangibly showing me that He is providing and has it all under control. The funds may not be coming in the way I hope for them to come in or on my timetable, but they are coming in nonetheless and most importantly according to God and His timetable! I am so thankful and so humbled!! I just do not even have words to describe how thankful I am and blown away by God's grace and faithfulness!
On top of all of that I got a phone call today saying that a church very dear to me is going to give me a certain amount of money which blew me away. THEN just now, I got a text from a friend of mines girl friend saying she wants to help me out by selling the pins to her sorority and bible study at UTK!!! God is providing and using people all over ultimately for His GLory and His Renown!! I am so grateful! Wow, honestly I am speechless! All I know to do is give all the praise to Jesus!! It's all Him, not me at all!
So, I just wanted to share with you these stories of God's faithfulness and provision! God is good all the time, all the time God is good!
