Prayer
Jubilee, Noah, Caleb and I ran to the grocery store the other day. It was sunny out, and beautiful but for some intermittent, rather gusty wind. I don't remember why, but Jubilee complained about the wind.
Noah declared, "I'm going to praise now."
"Dear God, pwease stop the wind. Amen."
After a moment, Jubilee remarked, "hey Noah, that actually worked!"
I recently received a rather swift, unexpected and obvious answer to prayer. The answer caught me off-guard and has been very good, but hard. (The usual mark of God's hand, right?) In the wake of dealing with this answered prayer, I keep trying to fit more circumstances into the obvious. Cram more into the providence of God than He perhaps means.
I spent my younger years overspiritualizing many circumstances. Looking for miracles under every bush and at every turn, expecting things to magically work out. My middler years I spent at the other extreme for a Christian, never expecting or inviting God to actually speak to me about most things -- determined to do what I set out to do.
God has been using motherhood to soften my heart so that I can again hear His voice in my circumstances. He has been showing me His glory in the mundane. Teaching me obedience in the tedious, hard things that nobody sees or gives me credit for.
And here I am, surprised by an answered prayer, certain that it occurred, and wondering how much of "everything else" is likewise an answer to this prayer in this arena of my life.
Things probably won't tie up in a neat bow, as I see it, on this side of heaven. God is so big that for everything to work out in a way that I comprehend it would not actually be good. As I continue to struggle on, I'm trying to pray (and live) with a heart in the right posture before the Lord. I'm trying to figure out what obedience in all things looks like, and just do that. And I'm resisting the temptation to over-spiritualize things while simultaneously resisting the temptation to deny that God might do a miracle.
"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see, this is what the ancients were commended for ... Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders, and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perserverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of God the father." Hebrews 11:1; 12:1-4
"Therefore, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink. For your heavenly Father knows you need these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be given to you as well." Matthew 6.
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28
Noah declared, "I'm going to praise now."
"Dear God, pwease stop the wind. Amen."
After a moment, Jubilee remarked, "hey Noah, that actually worked!"
I recently received a rather swift, unexpected and obvious answer to prayer. The answer caught me off-guard and has been very good, but hard. (The usual mark of God's hand, right?) In the wake of dealing with this answered prayer, I keep trying to fit more circumstances into the obvious. Cram more into the providence of God than He perhaps means.
I spent my younger years overspiritualizing many circumstances. Looking for miracles under every bush and at every turn, expecting things to magically work out. My middler years I spent at the other extreme for a Christian, never expecting or inviting God to actually speak to me about most things -- determined to do what I set out to do.
God has been using motherhood to soften my heart so that I can again hear His voice in my circumstances. He has been showing me His glory in the mundane. Teaching me obedience in the tedious, hard things that nobody sees or gives me credit for.
And here I am, surprised by an answered prayer, certain that it occurred, and wondering how much of "everything else" is likewise an answer to this prayer in this arena of my life.
Things probably won't tie up in a neat bow, as I see it, on this side of heaven. God is so big that for everything to work out in a way that I comprehend it would not actually be good. As I continue to struggle on, I'm trying to pray (and live) with a heart in the right posture before the Lord. I'm trying to figure out what obedience in all things looks like, and just do that. And I'm resisting the temptation to over-spiritualize things while simultaneously resisting the temptation to deny that God might do a miracle.
"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see, this is what the ancients were commended for ... Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders, and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perserverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of God the father." Hebrews 11:1; 12:1-4
"Therefore, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink. For your heavenly Father knows you need these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be given to you as well." Matthew 6.
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28
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