God knows where to find you

“You do what you can do and trust God with the rest”

As I have looked back over this last year there is one word that stands out, “faithfulness.” Not so much mine, as God’s.

It’s been exactly a year sense I moved back to Atlanta after living in Jacksonville, FL for almost a year. There were times when I first moved back home that the year in FL felt wasted—why did it seem so clear that I was supposed to move there? Why did God open all these doors and provide as only He can to then only shut the doors it seemed He opened? Did I hear God wrong? Was I not supposed to move to FL? Was I not supposed to move home? You get the idea!

Because it pan out the way I thought it seemed like a waste or that someone I missed God. But as I have reflected on my year back home, I seem over and over again home much that season in FL was an absolute gift, and it made me appreciate home all the more when God moved me back.

Before I moved I took pretty a lot of things for granted. My friends, family, job, church, ministry…etc. It wasn’t until I didn’t have my friends down the road, or my family in the next room, when I didn’t have a job I was familiar with or a church and ministry that I felt comfortable in, that I began to realize what I had.

When I moved back home I remember feeling like I was started all over. Didn’t really feel like I had a community. I had a handful of loyal friends, but for the last year I had kept a lot of people at arm’s length. In my own hurt and pain I isolated myself and distanced myself from people I shouldn’t have. So upon moving home it felt like I was starting all over.

This time however, with a whole new appreciation for what I had.

In just 12-months the I went from working two part-time jobs to having one full-time job at the very place I had been working part-time as an ASP teacher for going on 7-years. But again, I didn’t treat being back in that role as something that was too good for me. I took the opportunities presented to me, and worked hard at them and in the midst trusting God that the hard work would not go unnoticed.

The first 7-months I was home my first taste of Christian community was working at Dress Up. I was attending Passion City Church and just trying to process being home and getting my footing. The girls I got to work with we really become close, and there is nothing like working with a bunch of girls who love Jesus.

Then little by little had an opportunities to go on a few dates here and there and “put myself” and “my heart” out there again. Scary, but even in that whole process I began to come back to life.

I don’t like to say I was “old Brittney” but rather “a new Brittney.”

Around August after having lunch with a friend, I took the leap of faith that I think God has been promoting me to take for some time but I bucked it in pride. I started attending Freedom Church. Why I bucked the idea for so long…I don’t know. I remember sitting in a vision  meeting back in NorthStar Church when Freedom was just getting off the ground. So many of the foundation people I grew up with—so I was always “in the know” about what was going on but for some reason never gave into the promoting to go until August. It was like in that moment God began to open the flood gates of blessing—things I had prayed for for years started being answered.

I don’t think it’s because I was at Freedom, but rather I was where I was supposed to be in life. Working as an ASP teacher and Sub at Frey, found a church home and community that I could truly be a part, starting serving in student ministry again, and little by little (again) coming back to life.

At the beginning out August God laid on my heart the image of Ruth in the fields. That as she was faithful in the fields…God was faithful to give her favor.

The amazing thing about the favor and grace of God is we cannot earn it—but yet God has a way of when we do our part, we do what we know to do (obedience) God knows how to open the doors. Doesn’t mean we don’t have to take certain steps of faith (apply for that job, ask about a serving opportunity, set foot in that church building, set up that lunch date, make the phone calls…etc). Doesn’t mean we don’t anything, Ruth went to WORK every day…not to be noticed. Yet, God knows where to find us!

David was with the sheep

Ruth was in the field

Moses was in the desert

Abraham was minding his own business

Joseph was thrown in a pit

Jacob was running away

Disciples were fishermen & tax-collector

Mary was about the Married

Zechariah was in the temple

Jesus went into the wilderness before he started his ministry

Paul was on the way to kill Christians

GOD KNOWS WHERE TO FIND US!