Unexpected doors...

So I had a good reminder this week of how God is SO not predictable...and doesn't always follow OUR plans. It started when I did my tax return, and knowing that I have a big season of financial stretch ahead (with not working for at least 6 months, volunteering in Uganda and church building in NYC)...I just presumed that God would make it so that I got this great tax return and I would be set. Nope. $180 was my huge, extravagant tax return. So...I looked upward and asked "What the??". And then I felt God remind me that I had to trust Him...

Then this morning at Bondi church I heard Emma speak on having faith with our finances and never getting to a point that we don't need God. And Ben H speak on Moses. He spoke about how Moses took the first step in Exodus 5:22 and went to see Pharaoh. However God then made me think about how Moses went to Pharaoh and told him to release God's people...and how Moses would have just expected Pharaoh to agree. He probably just presumed that that is what God would do. But He didn't. Pharaoh told Moses to get lost...and then Moses went back to God. (On a side note...I love that he went back to God. He didn't go crying to his friends or sit around feeling sorry for himself, like most of us would do). Just like how I expected God to come through with my tax return...I am sure Moses would have expected Pharaoh to just hand the people over.
However...sometimes I think that God doesn't open or come through the door we expect. Because maybe then we would be tempted to take too much of the credit for what happens. Moses may have developed a swollen ego and felt proud that it was because of him that the people were set free. And maybe I would have thought that I was this amazing accountant and it was because of me that I got a great tax return.

Instead...God often comes through an unexpected door. A miraculous door. A door that, even when we step out in faith, still takes us by surprise and reminds us of how amazing God is and how much we need Him. With Moses, God then brought plagues and other problems Pharaoh's way...something Moses could never have done on his own, but yet because Moses had stepped out, Pharaoh still knew to go to Moses and hand the people over.
And with me...I dont know yet. But I do know that God will provide for me. And because I don't know how or when it will happen...it requires me to keep having faith. And I have no doubt that one day soon, a miraculous door will open. One that I couldn't have brought about myself...and although it wont have been my plan or what I expected, I know that it will be exceedingly, abundantly and more than I could ever have imagined!