Salvation - Glory - part 3

In the meantime God had brought this South African girl into my circle and she and I became quite inseparable, and during my dropping her home one evening after a meeting (with her limited time left in Australia) she said that she wants to see Ayres Rock, Darwin etc and I passingly said, 'I've always wanted to do that' but not thinking about joining her, just commenting.

Then out loud she says '' L E T S   DO   I T'.  I can still hear her saying it.  I again got all nervous, thinking I hardly know her, will it be OK etc.  I checked with work and yes, it was all fine, I was on my own little trip through Australia.

We had a great time!  People were thinking we had been friends for years and years, not weeks! It really was a God encounter.

Finally it was the day for [boyfriend] to come home.  I went to the Sydney International Airport to collect him and saw him walking toward me, and as I watched him walk toward me I realised that I had changed so much in those 9 weeks that this person walking toward me I hardly knew.

During a conversation within the following week, I explained to [boyfriend] that I felt that I needed to get to know him again.  I also told him I wanted to do things the right way!

Basically from there I think the relationship was disintegrating fast.  Two weeks after this conversation, we had a discussion and it was suggested that I go stay at a mutual friends for the weekend. Space for me to think things through.  It was a Friday night, I packed my bag.  In the mean time, he got ready to go and meet the boys as he had already arranged to go out.

As we drove through the main road in Edgecliff in NSW, I remember the moment, when I just knew what was best.  I blurted out, 'that's it!  I am going to do both you and I a favour, it's over!. It wasn't any angry thing, it was a realisation and a breaking off.  I was crying, he was upset too.  As I dropped him off I said I would collect my things on Sunday.

We waved goodbye to each other, and driving away I remember crying out, 'God, you are going to have to help me here, I can't do this alone'.  As I was crying out to God, both hands on the steering wheel, I experienced something physical.  The saying 'the weight lifted off my shoulder', I literally felt!  As I was crying out, it felt like the weight of an elephant lifted.  I knew this was God and I knew it was in response to the decision that I had just made, and finally to follow God and His ways.  I still found the split extremely hard, but I was encouraged that it was God who was guiding me through this whole thing.

On the Sunday I went to the church where my South African friend went.  I told her that I had split with [boyfriend] and I was about to go to collect my things from his house. I shared the experience of the tangible weight being lifted from my shoulders on the Friday night.  She prayed with me for strength to go and collect my things. On the Monday after all this had happened, I told my friend at work, she was surprised all the changes, but I knew she realised it was God.

So that is my journey.  That was 1997 and it is amazing how God works in your life.  I am still single as I update this, 2015. [Boyfriend met a girl shortly after that, married her, and has 3 girls]. I am really happy for him.  He was a friend before anything.

It really is better to be alone than with the wrong person, as my South African friend told me just the other week before writing this.

Really, the Lord is the one that opened my eyes. Brought me into circumstances where He was revealing Himself to me. I did have to make choices and in faith step out into this love.  This blog is helping me to remember and know God's love toward me.  To encourage me and just maybe to help encourage someone else.

Father God.  Jesus.  Holy Spirit.   Thank you.