Passionate About His Promise

The terms 'desire of my heart', a vision, the promise of God, and dream are pretty much interchangeable in my mind. They all connote something God has spoken to me that I'm passionately praying and believing for that is beyond my ability. In other words, I need God's miraculous power to see it come to pass.

I have only just begun on the journey toward the vision God gave me for a book six years ago. The book is now published; Available Grace: True Short Stories of the Rewards of Intentional Living. http://sbpra.com/mariannecassell  But as miraculous as that is to me it is only the necessary first step toward the goal God spoke to me when I was living in a little one room apartment in Sundown, Texas and writing down the accounts of His grace throughout my life. (See "What's a Dream Team?" in the book.)

Last Sunday morning, I was still nursing my first cup of coffee when I heard clearly in my mind, "It's time to claim the promise." I instantly knew the promise God was talking about. Two or more years ago He had given me a promise as my friends Karen and Carolyn prayed for me. But it seemed to require such a big miracle I just set it aside and I've rarely thought of it since. Now, God was saying it was time to pray passionately for its manifestation?

Well, I couldn't! I could pray, but I had too many doubts and questions to pray with my whole heart to see God's will done. Did God really want me to be divided between two visions, I wondered? To resolve my question I asked for a scriptural confirmation. The Lord has never failed to answer when I ask for scripture to base my faith on. I was thinking He would show me a Bible character who dealt with my problem in a few verses. Instead, He showed me Joshua. Then, He began to show me through the book how each battle Joshua faced required His miraculous provision. Even though the battles have been preached as individual miraculous moments each actually was a stepping stone, a detail, on the way to the ultimate goal: possessing the land for Israel. Perhaps this new promise I was 'claiming' was the next stepping stone toward my goal.

I'm happy to say I'm well on my way toward passionate, all in, prayers. My doubts have been resolved , my questions answered. I can hardly wait to see how God is going to fulfill this next step toward my goal.