I’m not going to lie it’s been a tough few months. Especially the last few weeks and I’ve felt the enemy attacking me taking hit after hit. But I continued to press into God and at times like that you almost just need to laugh. Its so clear the enemy is trying so hard to bring destruction and distractions, but God is still on our side. I don’t know about you but I am so glad that I belong to Him in times like this. God always uses everything the enemy meant for my destruction and turns it around for my good. He is always with us leading and guiding us the right way. He reminds us in uniquely intimate and special ways just how much we mean to Him. These little reminders give me the strength and hope to hold on and keep going.

So where do I even begin?! In the midst of the chaos God has been revealing so much to me and I am so grateful for that. It’s funny how as soon as we think we have it all figured out God goes “Oh really is this so?” haha…. I just have to laugh looking back at the last several weeks. Scenario after scenario I chose what I thought was “best.” The only problem with that is I chose my “best” I never asked God what His best was for me. I won’t go into details but as things played out God gave me multiple warnings on the situation I got myself into. I continued to ignored these warnings and explained them away out of denial and my own fleshly desires. I didn’t see the pain and I didn’t see the consequences of my disobedience. My ignorance caused me a lot of unnecessary hurt. I now can look back see the protection in God’s promptings. I was seeking God so desperately asking for Him to intervene…at the time I didn’t see His hand working in things, but now after the dust has settled I see a lot of the madness was His protection over me. I told a friend afterwards “Now I really know I need to be obedient to God right away!” I can laugh now, but it was a bad situation and I am lucky by the grace of God He protected me and lead me through it. That’s why it’s so important to be constantly communicating with God and seeking His will on things. If you are walking with Him He will show you right away. He did with me, but I was a little slow in being obedient. However, He’ll still help you along you just may have to endure the consequences of your choices.

Yes, disobedience brings consequences but His mercy and loving kindness always brings hidden blessings. God knows your heart and as you seek Him He reveals to you in the perfect timing. I can focus on the horrible things from the last few months or I can look at how great God is for saving me and helping me along. I learned so much! Not only from these situations, but also in my walk with God. I am so grateful He is so patient and gracious. He will never rush you, but I will say the Holy Spirit will increasingly prompt you. The closer you get to God the stronger this sense will become and it will become unbearable to ignore. This is where I was at. I wanted what I wanted knowing it wasn’t the right thing. After multiple warnings from God the internal conflict of doing what God wanted me to do versus what I wanted was becoming all consuming and impossible to ignore.

When we disobey we slowly create distant between us and God. This creates an open door for the enemy. And boy did I notice it! A slew of other things took place like a domino effect. I continually cried out to God not understanding these attacks. But just because we don’t know why something is happening doesn’t mean God isn’t still working. I so clearly see these attacks as an attempt to distract and draw me away from God. But God turned EVERYTHING around and used it all for my good. Every minuscule detail I see His hand in things the last few weeks. Even though sometimes rejection hurts or what we think we wanted doesn’t happen and it can feel like abandonment. God has not forgotten us. He hasn’t forgotten you or what He has promised. Remind yourself of that!

This is a little story to hopefully encourage some of you ❤ Shortly after some of these major things happened last week I was taking a walk. It had been an extremely emotionally taxing day. So, I went for a walk to talk with God and when I came back home I looked down and saw a little surprise. It was an inch worm! I was so excited! You guys I lovvveeee inch worms! For me it’s like finding a four leaf clover. I rarely see them and for as long as I can remember I always hope to find one every year. It has been a few years since I have seen one and there it was on my shoe! So unexpectedly I looked down and there it was. It was the highlight of my day! As weird as that may sound to some of you I felt like it was a little present from God. Just Him reminding me that He sees me and wants to bring me joy in these little things. I picked up the little worm and held it in my hand and I felt God tell me “Unexpected Surprises.” Just like this little inch worm yes, a small gesture but it doesn’t matter. God knew how special that would be to me. I felt Him tell me “When you least expect it there will be unexpected surprises.” God is so good! He knows what you like and what sparks your heart with delight.

This was a good reminder for me and hopefully you as well. We don’t need to cling so tightly to our “best” especially if He is showing us the signs we need to let that go. We need to trust God enough to allow Him to show us His best. He knows better than us and He sees things that we don’t. His ways are the absolute best. He can use anything for our good even if we mess up. But don’t we want to try and avoid that hurt if we can? God knows exactly what we need and He will bring it in His perfect timing. We are to expect the unexpected surprises. Ecclesiastes 3:11 “He has made everything beautiful in its time.”

Remember You are Fearfully Made

xoxo Taylor Nicole ❤