One thing

Nothing special happened first thing on August 9th to alert me to the fact that God was going to start speaking to me in a heart-stopping kind of way.

August 9th in South Africa is National Women's Day. I don't know if that ties in at all. This story is a little like a jig saw puzzle and sometimes a piece that you picked up right at the beginning only fits in at the end.

So I said 'heart-stopping'. It wasn't an audible voice from heaven that others heard and it wasn't pink and purple writing in the sky. But my heart skipped a beat. Or four.

For years, I have been asking God for something. And this is how it goes...it's a piece of a song:

One thing I would ask of You
This would I pray
To dwell in Your house, O Lord
Everyday
To gaze upon Your lovely face
And rest in the Father's embrace
(Stuart Townend)

The song is based on Psalm 27, which is where my original request came out of:

Psalm 27:4
One thing I ask from the Lord,
this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
and to seek him in his temple.

For me, this has always meant being able to be in ministry full time. And this was the deepest dream of my heart, a call that came when I was 18 years old. The opportunity came but I didn't trust God enough to pursue it past the first major obstacle. I started singing this often, asking for a second chance to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. I'm twice that age now, and so...the skipping heart.

As I opened my online devotion for the day, the title was One Thing. And I just knew something amazing was beginning.

Some questions came out of the devotional and I found them helpful and challenging. How would you answer these?

What things can I be sure God has called me to?

Which dreams have already been realised?

Which dreams remain to be fulfilled?

Although it seemed that my dream was impossible or was never God's intention, I knew that I was in a time of change and He was bringing this up now...He had something up His sleeve! And it wasn't His arm.

Are you in a time for change?

What are those impossible dreams of your heart? The ones you barely dare whisper to yourself in the dark?

Perhaps God wants you to hold onto those dreams. Perhaps He wants you to take those dreams to Him and ask Him about them. Again.