| Wednesday, November 18, 2009 |
| Difficult Answers to Prayer |
Think of something or someone for which you have been praying a long time. Now imagine your prayers are finally starting to get answered. A reason to rejoice, right? Of course, but did you factor in that answers to prayer can be difficult? I didn't I didn't plan for it to be this hard...
I'm finally starting to see the prayers I've been praying for my friend for so long answered. I'm learning that answers to prayer aren't always easy. When you truly pray for someone, trusting God to work in His perfect way according to His perfect plan then you set your agenda and will aside and allow for His. The ways He may choose to work don't always seem to make sense, especially when we can't see the whole picture. Right now I'm seeing answers here and there and trying to make sense of them all. I'm not seeing those answered as I would have expected, but I believe they are being answered...but...they are difficult answers.
The matters you pray for didn't happen overnight, so the answers don't often come overnight. They too are a work in progress. We want happily ever after results to our prayers, and we can't always see what God has in mind by how He works in our lives and the ones we love. Sometimes the answers are difficult...but God is greater than our hurting hearts...if we ever needed you, Lord it's now...Labels: prayer |
sent to the stars at 9:34 PM   |
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| Sunday, November 15, 2009 |
| What Faith Must Do... |
There is a new song on the radio that I am just totally mesmerized by. I can't listen to it enough. I totally absorb myself in the lyrics:
Everybody falls sometimes
Gotta find the strength to rise
From the ashes and make a new beginning
Anyone can feel the ache
You think it’s more than you can take
But you are stronger, stronger than you know
Don’t you give up now
The sun will soon be shining
You gotta face the clouds
To find the silver lining
I’ve seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn’t ever end
Even when the sky is falling
And I’ve seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That’s what faith can do
It doesn’t matter what you’ve heard
Impossible is not a word
It’s just a reason for someone not to try
Everybody’s scared to death
When they decide to take that step
Out on the water
It’ll be alright
Life is so much more
Than what your eyes are seeing
You will find your way
If you keep believing
I’ve seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn’t ever end
Even when the sky is falling
And I’ve seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That’s what faith can do
Overcome the odds
You don't have a chance
(That’s what faith can do)
When the world says you can’t
It’ll tell you that you can!
I’ve seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn’t ever end
Even when the sky is falling
And I’ve seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That’s what faith can do
That's what faith can do!
Even if you fall sometimes
You will have the strength to rise
What Faith Can Do - Kutless
I keep getting this feeling, conviction, sweet assurance that GOD IS ON THE MOVE!!! I have been praying so long for something...someone. So many years have past. My prayer hasn't really changed. I long for his salvation, his freedom, and his true joy that will never be found apart from Christ. I find myself crying to almost every song on the Christian radio. I've become totally vulnerable to what I believe God is doing right now. I believe He is working. Can I see it? No, not if I look with my physical vision. No. But I see something through the eyes of faith...something that my grace eyes have been praying for so long. Perhaps it's that speak those things which are not as if they were. I know now more than ever that what I've been praying for, hoping for, trusting God for is totally something faith can and must do. My part in all of this? Pray, pray, pray...be open to how God may choose to yuse me...but...pray, pray, pray...BELIEVE that this is what FAITH MUST DO.
When you see through faith and not through sight you start seeing things past what your earthly vision allows. I totally "get" "walk by faith not by sight." If I walk by sight, simply what I can see apart from faith, then that can be pretty depressing! And guess what? That is exactly where Satan wants me to stay. Because as long as he can move me toward despair because of what I am "seeing" or not seeing, then he can dishearten me to the extent that I may be still praying but my spirit has really given up. Well, I will not give up! God is on the move. I know. If it weren't so Satan wouldn't have to be working so hard! He's on the move and I am totally amazed by the tiny glimpses I can see of His work...and yet I know that there is so much more that is totally out of my sight. I love that line of the song that says "life is so much more than what your eyes are seeing..." "You WILL find your way, if you KEEP BELIEVING!!!" Wow...
I feel God's presence now. He is working. Silence doesn't signal His departure. Every trace of His work is a puzzle piece. Separately those piece don't make much sense. They seem pretty meaningless. They don't appear to serve much purpose. But once each piece starts to come together...wow...you finally can see the picture. We may never see the whole picture. But He does. So why shouldn't we trust Him with each and every piece that doesn't seem to make much sense to us? He knows how it will all turn out, and it will always be for His glory and for our good. God is on the move...the cares of my heart...this is what FAITH must do! |
| sent to the stars at 1:57 PM |
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| Sunday, November 08, 2009 |
| Believing for the Impossible... |
The last few days have been so difficult. As I was feeling so upset, discouraged, defeated Friday night I felt an overwhelming contradiction. I felt God whisper the impossible. You see I believe He has a plan that I can't even begin to imagine. If i were to share any of my thoughts with most people, I'm sure they wouldn't see it the way that I do. Gosh, I can't say I always see it the way I do either!
You see I'm believing God for the impossible. Too much in life is routine. We go to work. We go home. We go to church. We come home. We get up. We go to sleep. It's simple, well if you take out all the stuff that happens in between. But where within all of that is our purpose? I am referring to that unique purpose that God only has for you to do. Sometimes we get lost in the routines that we forget about those purposes. But we can't get so lost in our routines that we miss it. That we miss the moments that are clearly distinct from the routine. Sometimes we see His purposes as this achievable end. Yeah, like we can really box up God like that! His purpose is more of a journey. There may be this big thing coming down the road (where my believing God for the impossible comes in). But it doesn't start there and it doesn't end there.
I think it gets discouraging when we think it will start and end there. Look God I'm waiting for this...I'm really waiting for You to open this door. And we become stuck in our current circumstances waiting for that door to open. It all becomes about that door. I'm just getting by until this.... I think I've been guilty of that. I'm waiting on God for the impossible, and totally missing whatever He has for me right now. And honestly, I don't know what that is but...
I once heard Gloria Gaither talk about God's will/purposes for us. And she mentioned how Jesus would teach and this was a great ministry. But His purpose was about all that happened in between. You see we expect that teaching to be the big grand purpose. But it's not. It's the every day.
There may be this big grand thing God is going to do but there's also the preparation for that. And He's got purposes in those times too. I think that's the time period I'm in right now...
Someone told me the other day that I had such a beautiful spirit. I was shocked. I'm thinking, me??? You sure you meant me? She went on to say something about being so patient, etc. And then I was sure she couldn't possibly be talking about me!! But she was. See she saw me with grace eyes. She saw all that God was doing and was going to do in me. I only saw how I felt...my circumstances...my frustrations...my weaknesses. She caught a glimpse of His divine work. Honestly, patient is the very last attribute I would ever use to describe myself. But you know it's in our greatest weakness that God longs to do His work... You see that is also the exact place that Satan will try to strike us and tempt us. How much more do we need God to work in that area?!! If she saw patience in me...a beautiful spirit...then she saw God working. She saw God preparing me....preparing me for the impossible...
I am not saying what the impossible is but He has definitely put something on my heart. Prayer...that is what I'm lost in right now...prayer. This is something only God can do. If I even try to think it through I'll automatically be discouraged. No one can work in this situation other than Him....but wow do I see incredible things unfolding in the realm of this impossibility. I will trust You for what I know I can't do but for what you are more than able and have promised to do. I will trust in your salvation and in your redemption. I will trust your grace to fall like rain and bring forth a rich harvest for Your glory. |
| sent to the stars at 4:32 PM |
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| Favorite Books |
- The Papa Prayer
- The Power of a Praying Woman
- Streams in the Desert
- A Walk to Remember
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