4. The Lessons are Blessings. One of the more insightful things I learned and experienced blessing through was to realize that the "tough" lessons I was learning were actually blessings! The lessons were serving to increase my faith in Christ and weaken my self-dependency. The lessons were serving to cause my growth in the Lord. The lessons were blessings!

5. God kept the best for us. During the year, a few doors appeared to be opening for us, and we grew excited quickly! Two examples really stand out to me. In one instance, the door looked great. We visited the church facility and committee. There were several things that seemed to be such a good fit for us. When the weekend was over, we were ready to move! As it turned out, the committee was not; the door closed. We were devastated! In another instance, the church was not such a great opportunity, but the committee was in full agreement and we needed a job! We were not excited as we were before. We just viewed it as our only open door, so we were going to walk through it. The Lord said, "Not so fast!" And the door quickly closed. Again, we were devastated, just from a different perspective. It seemed we could not be placed in a "good" church or a "challenge" church. We questioned, "Will we ever get in any church?" Well...as you know, God did place us in a church-and it is the absolute best situation we have ever experienced! It is truly abundantly more than we could ever ask or imagine (Eph 3:20). God closed those other doors, but what we did not realize at the time (even though it hurt) was that He was keeping the best for us! This was a joyous blessing!

6. A Time of Affirmation. The year long struggle of closed doors and days of questions provided me the opportunity to dig down into my heart and search my calling before God. I really sought the Lord as to whether or not I was really called to pastor a church. During these days of soul searching, the Lord gave me a verse. Psalm 37:4-5 says, "Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will act." I knew God brought this to my attention, so I began to carefully search my heart. What was my desire? Upon hearing a sermon by John MacArthur on being a shepherd, my heart bled, and I wept on the inside. Clearly, my desire was to pastor, and it was clear that it was a God-given desire. So on that day, the Lord affirmed my calling, and I clung to His Word until He gave me the desire of my heart!

7. Living the Promises of Scripture. The above verses were given to me. When I resolved my calling, I then began to focus on delighting in the Lord. Then I begged God for faith to believe that He would stand by His Word. He did! It was a blessing to live that promise! God gave another verse to my wife. Get ready for this one! Psalm 66:10-12 says, "For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried. You brought us into the net; you laid a crushing burden on our backs; you let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance." God gave this verse to my wife on the worse day of our struggle, and we CLUNG to His promise to bring us to a place of abundance in His time for we were under the "crushing burden." And He did! And it has been thrilling to live through the promises of Scripture. I would not trade that blessing for anything in this world!

God is good to His people, even when it does not "feel" good!