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2022 01 06 wk 1 thursdayWritten by Michelle J. Goff, Founder and Director of Iron Rose Sister Ministries

While making a short trip out of town, I felt torn: too many people to see and not enough time. Instead of spreading myself too thin, I prayed fervently that God would lead me to who might be most encouraged by a visit.

One name kept coming to mind… so I texted my friend and asked if she had some time later that day to get together to catch up. About an hour later, she replied, letting me know that she was going to be getting off work at 4pm and would love to meet.

What she didn’t mention until later was that she wasn’t supposed to get off until 8… and that she rarely ever gets released early from work. That “small” detail of her early availability was only one piece of the God story that was being unveiled.

Friendships that span years of shared experiences develop roots. Even if it has been years since you have spoken, friends can pick up right where they left off and share in the deepest joys and challenges of life.

As my friend and I spoke on the front porch, then over dinner, the evidence of God’s hand at work to orchestrate our time together became more evident. We rejoiced over God’s faithfulness and provision. We wept over the pain of the consequences of sin, even sin that was not our own. We shared the more current struggles that we can lift up to the Father on each other’s behalf.

Our divine appointment became its own God story filled with many mini God stories! And when we departed later that evening, we definitively felt more deeply connected to God and to one another.

As a ministry this year, that is our goal—to equip women to connect to God and to one another more deeply through stories.

When we share our God stories, we open our eyes to how God is working today. We begin to recognize His living and active hand in more and more situations.

The more we see God in our lives, the more our stories become His stories… HIStories.

The more we see God and His love through the stories of Bible, the more we see and trust His sovereignty… their stories become His stories… HIStories.

Our HIStories and Bible HIStories are woven together as integral pieces of God’s eternal love story. The focal point of God’s love story is Christ.

Other ministries and local church groups have used the term HIStories as a way of highlighting similar types of God stories are. We are adopting that established term. However, the Spanish version of this term, DIOStorias, is a word I made up to highlight the same point. When you bring those two words together, they form a cross, our focal point.

I grew up in church, learning the stories of Noah and the flood, Abraham’s faith, Daniel in the lions’ den, baby Jesus in the manger, and many others. However, I did not understand that those stories were characters in God’s greater, larger story of the Bible. It is one big love story. God invites us to be characters in HIStory, recipients of His love. In college, professors began to help me connect the dots and focus on the eternal story that God is writing in each of our hearts.

Every story of the Old Testament was a foreshadowing and affirmation of Jesus’ perfect sacrifice, when the Lamb of God became flesh and dwelled among us. God’s relationship with the Israelites, His chosen people, illustrates the character of God and reminds us that we always have the choice to turn to Him and obey His commands, which are designed for our good.

Our God, Yahweh, the Great I AM is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is the author, creator, and architect of the greatest story ever told.

We are one part of God’s eternal story. He could’ve used anyone, yet our Heavenly Father chose each of the imperfect candidates in Scripture that He might receive the glory. Will you allow God to use you as an imperfect candidate to tell your story that God might receive the glory? Like Esther, who knows but that you have been called for such a time as this…

Please contact us if you are interested in sharing a HIStory from the Bible or a HIStory from your own life. Thanks for accepting the invitation to connect to God and one another more deeply through these God stories, and for sharing your own with others! It is our opportunity to give God the glory and invite others into their own HIStory with Him.

 

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