Can You Count The Stars?

This moment was so great and I’ve shared it already with several circle of girlfriends but for some reason I am having trouble compiling it here on my blog.  Sometimes speaking and sharing in person is just a little easier when the message is just so monumental!  I eluded to this a couple of weeks ago in this blogpost about Watching for God. 

It was literally like God moved a mountain for me to see my faith. 

Both Matthew and Luke share Jesus’s words in the Gospels that if we have faith as small as a mustard seed we can speak and move mountains- right?!?

I was studying about Abraham and reading in Gen 15 and picturing God bringing me out to the night of stars and writing out a prayer to God asking Him to help me believe His promise of blessings as vast as the stars.  This picture of being under the stars stuck with me for a couple of days.  And the following mornings every tiem I walked through my neighborhood and felt the sun both warm my face and blind my eyes as it rose—I remembered and thanked my God. 

Later that week, I heard a Bible teacher speak about Luke 13 and was intrigued by her sharing the details of this crippled woman.  I got goose bumps and felt God nudging me to pay attention.  I began to think about what might have crippled this woman and even with my recent rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis I knew God wanted me to see more than just physical crippling.  I felt nudged to ask what is crippling me and have been on a journey with Him to discover these things.  And I bet there will be more blogs as He reveals. 

Because of the Bible teacher’s description of this crippled woman, I was seeing this crippled woman who Jesus saw-then called-then healed-then touched in Luke 13.  The Bible says she was bent over and could not straighten up at all; can you imagine looking at the ground and your feet all the time…never being able to look up at the stars the Bible teacher explained. 

When we are crippled we are not able to see the promises that God has for us and I am convinced this is why Jesus healed her.  She needed to be able to look up at the stars…

A little later, I was compelled to read the story in Luke 13 in its entirety and verse 16 jumped off of the page…this crippled woman, Jesus called a ‘daughter of Abraham.’  And that is what we are…daughters of Abraham...capable of great faith.  

And God desires for us to see all that He has for us--as vast as the stars.  We are meant to stand tall and look up to stars.  Are you feeling crippled-emotionally-physically-spiritually?  I used to be crippled with shame from abuse that I suffered, praise God I no longer walk hunched over because of that--yet I still want to seek to be free of anything that may be crippling me.  Don't you?  

I feel this is what God wants us to remember: Jesus sees you - He has called you - He will heal you - He wants to touch you.  For you are Abraham's daughter!  Get out there and look up at the heavens!

Can you relate?  I would love to hear how Jesus has touched you or how your faith has moved mountains thus far.