Recent church experience

I have been hesitant to post this because of those who would critisize it as 'hearsay' since I was not present for the second part of this, but I feel it is important to record for future reference for those who know the truth of the situation.

On Sunday, April 11, Kevin, a man in our church, stood up during a quiet moment in our church service and shared that all during the week he felt God impressing upon him that there were 3 people in our congregation contemplating suicide. He shared that God made it clear to him that one of them already had a bottle of pills they were planning to use. He went on to speak words of encouragement to those people, and then we prayed for them.

The next Sunday, April 18, our pastor let us know that during the prayer time after service, a person came forward and admitted that they were the one with the pills.

To me, this is a reminder that God will never quit trying to get through to us. He loves us deeply and gives us signs and wonders all the time to try to get our attention. Do we recognize them? Are we listening and looking for them? Do we know God well enough to recognize his voice - to tell it apart from all the other voices we hear, our own - others - the enemy's?

Faith Like Potatoes

This is an amazing movie. It is based on the book about the true story of a family in Africa. If this does not inspire and confirm the power of prayer, I don't know what can.

http://www.faithlikepotatoes.com/Faith_like_Potatoes/Faith_like_Potatoes.html

Wish I had time to read the book. I'm guessing it is even more compelling than the movie.

Imagine if we all trusted and prayed that completely...

Contemplation

I've been having trouble coming up with another post. I'm finding that it's similar to when my husband asks what I talked about with whomever I just spent an hour talking with on the phone. We talked about a million things for that hour, but I can only tell him a few highlights.

So far I've written about a few highlights. But every day, all day, I'm having a conversation with my Father and friend. There are so many things He his doing in my life, in our lives, on an on-going basis that I'm finding it difficult to articulate, to communicate the detail of it. Just like I couldn't repeat the hour long phone conversation word for word, so I'm finding it hard to repeat the perpetual conversation we have every day.

What I find is that the more I let go of things, I mean that internal need to feel in control of things, the more he is free to work and make things happen. And he makes things happen so much bigger and better than I imagined they could happen. Just yesterday we had an appraisal done on our house. I had been asking God for a certain figure for the house to appraise at. Then I realized I was trying to control things again. So I let go and simply asked that the appraiser see what He wanted him to see, and that the number be whatever it needed to be to accomplish His plans for us. The appraisal came in $100K more than expected! If I had continued asking for the smaller amount, I may have gotten what I asked for, but not what I needed.

Could it have gone the other way? What if the number turned out to be much lower, thereby 'ruining' my plans? That is the risk, isn't it? Trusting that the answer He gives is what is best for us. Being confident that His plans are better than our plans.

You know, it really is more peaceful. I wonder if that is part of the Peace of Jesus. When I trust in him, and give him control, I am at peace inside. When I am in control, trying to make things happen the way I want them to happen, I am axious and stressed inside. I think I'm becoming addicted to the peace. I'm finding it much easier to give him control, and am recognizing much quicker when I'm trying to take over.

I'll work on trying to communicate the 'smaller' details more often. But for now, know that if posts are infrequent, it's because I am only finding words to effectively communicate the highlights.

Where, oh where has that little shoe gone...

Last summer, Stephen lost one of his shoes. We looked everwhere, for several weeks. Good thing it was summer as he had to wear flip-flops every day. Finally at the end of myself, I sat down and asked God to show me where the shoe was. I asked for forgivess for not coming to him sooner and trying to find it in my own strength. Then I waited and listened.

With my eyes closed, all I saw was black. Then I realized He was trying to tell me the shoe was some place dark - "Oh, it's in a dark place? And it's under something? I can't quite see it yet, please make it more clear. Is that my chair? Is it under my chair?"

And I got up and looked under the recliner in my bedroom, and there it was! I don't know how we missed that in all those weeks of looking, but I do know that if I had asked Him first, and waited for His direction, it would have saved a lot of time and frustration.

Needle in a haystack

One day my boys and I were at a park with friends for a play-date. They had their bikes with them and rode all over the park. At one point they decided to play football with their helmets, and various other creative activities. They were generally all over a large part of this park.

After about an hour an a half, my youngest brings me his helmet, very distraught that one side of the little clip on the chin strap was missing from his helmet. Without the clip the helmet was no longer useful as it could not be strapped on. Since it was getting close to time to leave, I decided to take a look and see if I could find it.

I started walking and praying. "Lord, you know where this clip is. You know that Stephen can't wear the helmet without it. So what's the plan? Do you want him to not have a helmet for now? Do you want us to purchase another one? That's not in the budget at this time, but if that's what you want, I'll trust you for the money. Or do you want to show me where the clip is? Hear I am Lord - I'm listening."

And I kept listening and walking. First over in the large grassy area, then down the path a ways. Walking, listening and calmly, expectantly, scanning the ground as I went. I'm guessing about 15-20 mins went by. Then I came to a dirt area with a few trees in it. As I approached the first tree I heard a voice in my left ear say "Behind the tree". I said, "Oh, behind this tree?" and walked around to the back of the tree. There it was.

I was very greatful and thanked Him for showing me where it was. And Stephen thanked him too!

Introduction

A few months ago, someone I love told me prayer doesn't work. If I remember correctly, his exact words were "nothing fails like prayer". This broke my heart because I know it's not true. Since then, I've been keeping track of all the answered prayers and conversations with God that I've experienced. But there have been so many, that my head is overflowing and I'm beginning to forget them. So I'm starting this blog as a place to record such things. Hopefully others will be encouraged and inspired, and also send stories of their answered prayers and conversations with God.

For today, I'll just start with the most recent event. A few weeks ago, after reconciling the books for our IT business, it was clear that we needed $8K dollars to come in within 5 days in order to make all our payables on time. In this economy, AR has been pretty low, and some have been stretching past the due dates - something that rarely happened in the past. So it was highly probable that this amount would not be forth coming. But confidently and expectantly I asked the Lord for $8K by Wed. He was faithful and provided what I asked for.

After processing the payments and all the new payables, it was clear we now needed $10K for meet the current payables, plus payroll, and we need it by Friday (2 days ago). Again, He blessed us with exactly what we asked for.

I have no doubt that God answers prayers - big and small alike. I've experienced it. I count on it. Just as friends and loved ones talk every day, so can we talk with God every day.