God is showing me over and over lately just how much He has done to prepare me for and protect me from... so many things. All along the way, I submitted to Him. In so many flesh chastising ways, I submitted, and every single one of those times, He is now uncovering and showing me everything I didn't understand. But I get it now. I find myself just telling Him thank you over and over again. What didn't seem right, was right. And what seemed right was wrong. What seemed so unfair, he stored up. He is making so much so clear. Sometimes Christians think because they have served God for so long that they just know Him so well, but they become complacent without even recognizing it, and they don't know Him well at all, and it takes something completely off the rails to jerk them into reality with God. Not just a bad experience, but something completely off center, something not working out at all the way we'd always planned. He is the God who would always draw away to a quiet place in the middle of something else... His ways are not our ways. We are prone to misunderstand before we understand. I am thankful for being separated for Him!! I am thankful for every painful sinew that was cut, every inch of space He made through stretching. God does not waste pain. God does not allow pain for no reason. Sometimes we just can NOT know the reasons upfront, but at some point He tells us what we actually need to know in His time for His purposes. I just want to say ... cling to Him no matter what, no matter what! If it looks good, if it looks bad, just cling. I cannot say this any more clearly. There will be trouble ahead. Do not lean to your usual way of thinking. Some people are going to be tested. Cling.To.Him. If we don't cling to Him we cannot love the way we need to get through what is next. It isn't a natural form of love we are going to need. It's God's love through us, and that doesn't always look or feel like we've been taught it would.
Listen to Him and Cling.