“Karen’s Notes!
Insights from a Glory-Bound Lady”

Selected Notes
Volume 6 Number 27
#271 “Do You Wonder if the Lord Seems to be Stretching You?”
July 5th, 2023

A hearty welcome and thanks for stopping by.
Many have expressed to me that they are blessed by “Karen’s Notes.” Men and women alike have enjoyed peeking into her journal or reading the brief notes she wrote in her master copy worksheet.

Today, I simply want to challenge you to consider something that took place in Karen’s life that was clearly from the Lord. She responded to His leading. She obeyed, trusted Him, was stretched and blessed indeed.

Here is something that Karen told me in the 1970s.

“Michael, you are the public speaker. I am not. I am willing to do anything in the church. I am willing to help in the kitchen, the nursery, with the cleaning, entertaining, or even teaching children. But I cannot speak publicly in groups of adult ladies, and I especially cannot speak to ladies’ groups in other churches.” She loved talking with the ladies in conversation but not in front of the group as a speaker. I assured her that was more than all right with me.

Here is something that Karen told me in the 1990s.

“Michael, today an invitation came from a ladies’ group in a sister church to speak at their ladies’ event. I think I need to pray about this because maybe the Lord wants to stretch me. Maybe I should accept the invitation.”

Here’s a little take away from this.

Karen was stretched in ways that really were incredible during those twenty years. The very thing that Karen was quite certain that she could not and would never do was the very thing that slowly but surely brought her great joy. Though she never asked for a speaking engagement, soon she was booked for many ladies’ events spanning multiple states. She always trusted the Lord and was never confident in herself.
Here’s the great lesson. “Is anything too hard for the LORD?” (Genesis 18:14). When the Lord really lays something on your heart to do, even if you thought you never could, remember nothing is too hard for Him. When God wants you to do that assignment, He will give you the strength, wisdom, and ability to do it through Him. Karen discovered joy in speaking, and the Lord really used her!

What has the Lord been laying on your heart and asking you to consider doing?