April 22, 2018

Trust God

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

– Proverbs 3:5-6

A few days ago I wrote down a very specific prayer request. I’d prayed in general for this thing to come to pass but this time I got specific. Two days later, God answered my prayer.

I don’t know what surprised me more: That He answered my prayer so quickly or that He answered it at all. I was shocked at my reaction. I know God answers prayer. He does it all the time for me and for others. It’s something I talk about again and again. But this prayer was just so specific and He did it – for me.

What I prayed for doesn’t matter. I will tell you that it wasn’t something major. It was something much smaller. I know that God cares about the details of our lives. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. God has numbered the hairs on our heads. He cares about the little things. But He cared about my little thing and I was just so amazed.

Isn’t that just like God to show up when we really aren’t expecting Him? This is one of those things that had gone on for months. I’d really given up hope. My prayers had been general and maybe a little half-hearted. Did I really expect success in this? But when I got specific, when I really turned it over to Him totally, God showed up in the most glorious way.

Sometimes I think I hold back on my prayer requests because I am so aware of all that God has done for me. I have no right to ask for anything else. He has carried me through the worst of storms. He soothed my battered flesh and lifted my spirits with hope. I am just so very grateful. I didn’t deserve all He has done for me and I certainly don’t deserve anything more.

Yet, God shows up again and again. I implore Him to guard my steps so that I follow His light and not my own desires. I am so thankful for all the times He has told me “no” or “not yet”. Have you ever looked back and thanked God for His protection from something you thought you wanted? He is just so wise!

I am not a trusting person. Life has taught me that the people closest to you can and will betray you in the worst possible ways. Trust is something earned over time. Betrayal can come in an instant, slamming the foundation of what you thought you knew and battering it into tiny pieces.

But God. How trustworthy is He? I am just so grateful, so thankful, that He is always by my side! God loves us with a love we can never fully comprehend. He always wants what is best for us. He always tells the truth. And He never leaves us alone to deal with whatever heartbreak or mess we are facing.

God also celebrates with us. He draws us close as we tell Him our joys, as we smile at the beauty of today. He is never consumed with jealousy or envy. God loves that we are happy. God laughs with us and rejoices on all the good that comes our way.

I don’t know what the days ahead will bring. I have no map that shows the future. But I know that God is with me. I know that whatever comes – the good and the bad – God will guide me through it. My goal, my part, is to stay focused on Him and to trust in His light to show me the way.

April 10, 2016

Remember God’s Faithfulness

4 So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, 5 and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, 6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.” -- Joshua 4:4-7

How specifically do you pray? Our class has been studying The Battle Plan for Prayer by Stephen and Alex Kendrick. This week’s lesson is on praying strategically and specifically.

That’s always been difficult for me. I want to be vague about it. Please, God, help me. Please, God, guide me. But I never say how I want Him to help or guide me. I want His will, of course, but I’m also a little bit intimidated by asking God Almighty for anything else.

I am so blessed. Totally. I know that. Mostly, I am blessed by His Presence. I am never alone to face whatever happens, good or bad. He has met all my needs. All of them. So I feel guilty when I want more.

Yet God gives me more. He answers my prayers. I am always amazed at how good He is to me.

Yesterday I desperately needed to talk with someone about a first aide issue. I had done all I knew to do and still blood would not stop flowing from the wound. I called a friend who is a medic, but he wasn’t home. I called the doctor’s office and was on hold waiting to speak to a person for what seemed like forever. I finally hung up.

I asked God what I should. I barely got the words out of my mouth when the phone rang. It was the doctor’s office calling to give me test results from earlier in the week. I needed to talk with a nurse and God had one call me. How amazing is that!

I immediately told her she was an answer to my prayer and, after I explained the situation, she told me what to do. It worked. Crisis averted and no trip to the ER for us.

I want to remember this. All the times in the future when I wonder where God is, I want to remember how He helped me. All the times when I don’t think God hears me, I want to remember how He answered my prayer.

We could all use stones to remind us of God’s faithfulness. And we should share our stories with others, so that everyone will know how good God is to us all. What an amazing illustration of just how much God cares.

　

　

February 8, 2016

God Always Answers

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. -- 1 John 5:14

Do you believe God answers prayers? Do you believe God answers your prayers?

Sometimes. That was the consensus this morning. The thing is God answers all our prayers. Maybe He doesn’t answer in the way we want, or in the timeframe we would prefer, but He answers just the same.

In the book The Battle Plan for Prayer for Stephen and Alex Kendrick, the writers give five general ways God answers prayer. The first is an immediate yes. We love those, don’t we? We’re usually so excited that we don’t realize that God might have anticipated our request and been preparing His answer for years in advance.

The second way is when God says yes but not right now. Our instant society has programmed us to want everything right now. It’s hard to wait. But patience is sometimes what God wants to teach us.

Another way God answers prayer is by saying yes because you’ll learn from it. Those are generally not pleasant because lessons usually mean we needed God to redirect us. Ever experienced one of God’s lessons? Yeah. But usually the end result is worth it, especially since He never leaves us to walk through it alone.

The fourth way God answers prayers is to say no because our heart isn’t right. Why are you wanting what you’ve asked for? Is it for your glory or God’s glory? Is it to build yourself up, to put someone else down, or to fill a hole inside with stuff?

The last way God answers prayers is awesome: God says no because He’s got something better in mind for us. Sometimes we ask too little of our great God and He amazes us with His answer.

Even though sometimes it seems God doesn’t hear us, He does. Every single time. And He always answers. Always. So if you aren’t hearing His voice, ask again. And again. Open your Bible and read. Pray. Quiet your heart and listen. And wait. When the time is right, God will answer.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Do We Expect God To Answer?

So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him. -- Acts 12:5

One of the highlights of our Sunday small group and our Women’s Bible Study group is the prayer time. Every person has an opportunity to offer praises and prayer concerns. And then we pray.

There’s something so special about hearing someone lift your name, your concern, up to God. There’s something so empowering in that. And there’s something so joyful about thanking God for answered prayers. That communion brings us closer as a group and as God’s people.

Peter was in prison and the church -- God’s people -- prayed for him. Just as we pray for those around us. We are forever asking God our Father for His touch in our lives and the lives of those whom we love. We beg for healing. We ask for mercy. We seek peace in the middle of a storm.

But do we really expect Him to answer? We hope He does. We pray for that. But do we really expect healing? Do we really expect peace? Do we really expect God Almighty to get involved in our own little mess?

In this story, an angel came to Peter while he was in prison and let him out of the prison. They passed guards and went through an iron gate that “opened for them by itself.” Then the angel left Peter and he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark.

Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer the door. When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!”

“You’re out of your mind,” they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.”

But Peter kept knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.

-- Acts 12:13-16

They no doubt asked God to spare Peter’s life. They likely begged Jesus to release Peter from his prison cell. And yet they never expected Peter to show up on their doorstep, even as they had gathered to pray for him.

Isn’t that like us? We expect God to hear us and answer our prayers. And yet when He does we are astounded by it. Almost as though we never really expected Him to answer.

Our God is a God of miracles. He is a God of love and compassion and kindness. He welcomes His children -- that would be me and you -- into His open arms. He hears us when we cry and He hears us when we laugh. He is present in our lives and He answers our prayers.