I woke up this morning around 3:30 knowing I was supposed to pray for our Youth. We are in a transition phase with our Youth. We, those who work with, lead and love our Youth, are trying to find a balance for our Youth ministry. It ain’t easy. A lot of prayer is needed and is happening. I prayed for them.
I then felt led to pray for MY Youth…Shawn, Sarah and Brett. Which led me to pray for My Man.
Having completed the prayers I felt led to pray, I closed my eyes to drift back off to sleep.
Except I couldn’t sleep. Isaiah 44:22 popped into my head. My scripture memory verse. I repeated it silently over and over, trying to memorize it perfectly (didn’t, but I have the general idea and words memorized at this point and am fine tuning the actual NIV version.)
And then this popped into my heart as loud as a clap of thunder:
DARE TO BELIEVE, Susan.
Dare to believe? I mulled it around in my heart and in my head until Russell’s alarm went off at 5:30 and he got up and left for work. I tried to drift back off to sleep for a bit. But couldn’t.
A gazillion thoughts/to do’s were swirling around in my head and I sat down at the computer to start knocking some of them out on paper and plan my day.
I was getting ready to shower when He reminded me of the Word He had given me just a couple hours earlier:
DARE TO BELIEVE.
I tossed it out to my bff’s on twitter and even posted it on facebook and hopped into the shower where I was flooded (no pun intended) with sentence after sentence of dares to believe:
Dare to Believe that I am all you need, Susan.
Dare to Believe that Sarah belongs to Me, that I have her, that she will marry the Godly, Christian man I have chosen for her.
Dare to Believe that Russell is all you need in a husband.
Dare to Believe that I created you to be all he needs in a wife.
Dare to Believe that you can lose weight, eat healthy, grow strong and fit again.
Dare to Believe that you can give up coffee with my help. (Wait…how did that one get in there!?)
And there are so many more things that I have placed into my heart to keep and ponder. And believe.
Dare to Believe, dear ones. Ask Him to place into your hearts the things that you long to believe, but have been afraid to.
I love you!
susanwheelersmith.com 
Thank you for sharing. I am believing God to bring my oldest son back to Him, to also lose weight, for a home. and many other BIG things. At times I have struggled or became frustrated that it would not happen. This brings a smile to face. 🙂
Receiving the word today.
Love,
Patty
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I love that you gave up a longer, hot shower to share this with us. (Sacrifice, indeed!)
Have to say this struck me huge. Doing Loving Well with my Bible study group and waffling between “yeah, yeah, we'll see” and “I'm going to put all my eggs in this basket” when Beth said this could change life forever. I want to believe that, but am often paralyzed by remembering that I've tried other things that have lasted only a while before fizzling out.
But then, RADICAL pops in my head. Because the difference is, this is not about my trying harder, figuring out the right list of steps to follow. This is about being radically reliant, deeply dependent on GOD to do something in me that I just plain can't do in myself.
And THEN…I remembered Believing God–how that did change everything. Because it was belief, heart stuff. And this Loving Well, well, it's heart stuff too.
So DARE TO BELIEVE? Well, I needed that today too.
Love you so big,
Joanne
P.S. And THEN, I thought of the Ruth study we just did and the little picture I drew in the margin on one of the days: God –> me –> others –> abundance.
Abundance comes when we take what God has given us and pass it on to other people.
So all that to say: Something tells me there's abundance in there for you for taking what you received and sharing it with us.
Okay, I'm done.
🙂
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Thank you for posting this my dear friend. This spoke to me this morning. Feeling a bit inadequate for the task set before me today, but I will dare to believe that He who began a good work in me will be faithful to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ! I have to go on faith, because I'm at the end of my abilities on this one. Maybe that's just exactly the way it's supposed to be.
I do love you so.
T
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I love you girl – you and your wise, sweet heart. Praying over your day like you would not believe. Got a few things I need to dare to believe over too. Good word from a GOOD God!
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