A Face….Squeaky Clean.
A Face….Portraying a Shiny Shimmer.
A Face Veiled….Then, A Face Unveiled.
There are many places we are reminded how we should respond to the opportunities we are afforded through God’s grace.  Yes, it is a fact, doors open, doors we do not yet reach to open, yet doors still, there waiting, existing….doors of opportunity.
Walk with me into my sister’s soon-to-be kitchen.  There, among the studded walls filled with electrical boxes, a room where glass panes will soon be placed, THERE, where we can see in outside in every direction.  In this table area, Jill’s future “dining room,” that is where we were standing last evening.
Now, in the past, countless hours were shared at Jill’s table, and even though that previous house is gone, this new home, this soon-to-be finished dining room, brings such promise.
Imagine for a moment with me; See this room within your mind.  A beautiful kitchen/dining room exists, one where we stay for hours, lingering around the kitchen table, sitting together, talking, laughing, playing board games, making memories, reminiscing about the past.
We sit there around her table, inside the room that belongs to her, one that is not ours to own, but one given to us to enjoy.
We look to the future (as we will sit there at her table with our feet underneath, with our body comfortably snuggled into the chair), and we see the beauty of the outside coming inside.
We look through the six windows that fill the area, seeing the wall of windows, enjoying the view of the outside as it is brought into the room, almost as if the two (the outside and the inside) become one.
It was there (while standing there in Jill’s future kitchen/dining room), that I saw God’s wondrous beauty as the evening unfolded into night.
As we stood there—in that place—imagining the future sunrises, seeing the setting sun in the west….

We remember in our minds the reflection of His sunset as the sun descends down in the western sky.
We recall His sunrise from the dawn, one that promised how His sun will set, right there, in that westward place, in the same place where His sun sets daily, day after day after day.

A covenant is a promise, a vow, a truth.
A truth, a vow, a promise, a covenant should not be broken, BUT KEPT. 
So, as we stand there, gazing outside, looking past the studs, looking through the windows, seeing what lies beyond, seeing the world outside….HIS WORLD.

We are gifted with a deer walking slowly across our line of sight.   The deer is “unfearfully” calm, knowing that its life is not in danger, not in this place and not in this time.
If we stay there, long enough, we will eventually also see turkeys, hens and jakes, flocking together, pausing as a group, there, on their way, as they travel across the field.
In our lives, there are places we go, nights when we are reminded of God’s grace, of His provision for our lives, of the opportunities He gives to us.

If we stay there, long enough, we will eventually also see others, believers coming together, pausing as a group, there, praying and encouraging one another, as they make their way, as they travel across the field of life.

• We see.  We Question the opportunity.
• We wonder….Is this for me?
• We gaze past our fear.
• We ask ourselves….Can I really do what has been offered to me?
• We look out through the windows.
• We speak, asking….”God, are You in this, or is this just something I should avoid?”
• We then make a list….A simple list with two columns….One column for all the “pros” and another column for all the “cons” found within this opportunity.
• We search for the answer we may wish to readily see, hoping to see, written there upon our lists….BUT…

As I stood there in Jill’s kitchen, gazing back into the past and also seeing into the future, I recall how I have postured my body to pray during this past year.
(in our mind). I Scoot back.   I Push away from the chair, and bend forward, leaning my body, bending at the waist, turning my eyes toward the floor.
During prayer, when we lean completely forward toward God, as we prepare our minds, emptying our inner thoughts, posturing our body to meet our LORD, secure in knowing that God personally and intimately promises us His eternal promise, reminding us how HE will never leave us alone.

Last evening, while standing in the “soon-to-be” dining room, one that will soon become Jill’s I voiced,
“GOD, it’s me, in Jill’s future kitchen.
Father , I need Your guidance, Your direction.
I need Your strength to know the way I should go.
Yes, I need You, LORD, to direct me.
Most definitely, LORD, I need You.
Guide me.  Lead me.  Show me the way I should go.  Help me to know Your path, Your will, Your way I should go.   Help me see Your will in this new opportunity.  Help me see your destination for my life as You provide this new change for my days.”

God is with us, in all situations, in our days, our nights, and our moments.  The devil seeks to lie to us, trying to cause us turmoil and anguish, leading us away from the God we love.  Satan’s desire is to steal our joy, and Satan will work hard, every day we live, to accomplish that goal.
Let us….NOT ALLOW SATAN TO WIN.
Let us….NOT GIVE SATAN ANY CHANCE TO STEAL OUR JOY, GOD’S JOY FOUND ONLY IN SERVING OUR LORD.
Let us….SPEND MORE TIME IN GOD’S WORD & IN PRAYER, TALKING WITH OUR FATHER, THAN WE SPEND FRETTING OVER THE “NEGATIVE SIDE” OF OUR PRO/CON LIST.
Let us….LOOK FORWARD WITH EYES OF FAITH.
Let us….SEE THE FUTURE GOD HAS FOR US.
Let us….PROCLAIM, “THANK YOU, GOD, FOR ALL THE BEAUTIFUL OPPORTUNITIES YOU REPEATEDLY GIVE TO US.”

In the Bible, God gave Moses the task of leading God’s people out of bondage and toward a new land, toward God’s Promise Land.  Moses was a man, flesh and blood, just like us, and Moses experienced his own struggles along his life journey; yet, God was faithful.  God kept His promise to His people.  In one passage, we read how Moses spent time in God’s presence, there on the mountaintop.

“It came about when Moses  was coming down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses’ hand as he was coming down from the mountain—[The Ten Commandments]), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him [with God]….”
“Afterward all the sons of Israel came near, and he commanded them to do everything that the LORD had spoken to him on Mount Sinai.
When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.
But whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with Him, he would take off the veil until he came out, and whenever he came out and spoke to the sons of Israel what he had been commanded,
the sons of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone.   So Moses would replace the veil over his face until he went in to speak with Him [with GOD].”

(Exodus 34:29-35)

Our faces should be so shiny, so radiant, so vibrant for the world to see……All because we have been in the presence of the LORD. 
Our daily postures should remain a steady dialogue with Our Father God.
Our hands should remain lifted every moment of every day as we offer God praise for all the ways HE provides for our needs.
God is amazingly good….all the time.
God makes clear His path for our lives.…all the time.
God does not wish for us to stand back, fearful of the unknown, BUT GOD desires that we seek Him, that we spend time within His presence (so much so that our face shine and we need a veil to cover our shiny, shimmery, glowing face).

God is with us…..all the time!
God wants us to boldly step forward in the new direction He has provided….all the time!
God wants us to press forward, despite our fear, despite the devil’s snares he continually casts to trap us and steal our joy. Yet, still, God wants us to press forward, as He reveals His path for us, to obediently go….all the time!
God will walk with us as we go wherever HE LEADS.….all the time!
IT IS A PROMISE & GOD DOES NOT LIE!!!!   NEVER!!!!!!!
Today is a brand-new day to pull up to God, to bend forward to pray, to praise Him for His eternal salvation only HE Provides, to talk with, to listen to, and to DO GOD’S WILL. TODAY, MAY WE BE OBEDIENT, ALLOWING GOD TO EQUIP US, TO MAKE A WAY, AS HE ALWAYS DOES….WHEN WE ARE LED TO DO HIS WILL.