**(This post is looong, and it's more of an outpouring of my heart. Just wanted to give you a heads up, in case this kind of post is not of interest to you.)
Lately, God has been expanding my thinking. He's been showing me glimpses of His power that I haven't been noticing, or that I've simply taken for granted. Thankfully, He's opened my heart and my mind to possibilities of His splendor and work in our lives that, honestly, up until this point I probably just never believed.
Because of the culture we live in, it is so easy to rely on ourselves. And honestly, because we are so blessed to live in this country, we often find ourselves not even asking God for the "big" things, because, to be frank, we simply don't need him.
Likewise, God has been showing me that I've been running to my own solutions for situations, rather than going to Him first. I know that that sounds so cliche, but let me explain. A few weeks ago Jackson got incredibly sick with Bronchitis, and had to take lots of medicine, and complete some breathing treatments. Up until that point, praying for God to show up in the middle of that was just something I didn't do. Oh I would have prayed for Him to get better or feel better, but for God to actually show up and do something miraculous, was just not something I would have prayed for.
But, God, my sweet sweet heavenly Father has been challenging my thinking.
He wanted to show me that not only could He do something miraculous, He wanted to.
At the doctor's office, I was told that Jackson needed to take some breathing treatments twice a day at home for a few days to open up his breathing. When I got home and told Adam, we both admitted to thinking the same thing, "There is no way Jackson is going to sit still with a mask on his face, hold it there, and breathe 5 times, TWICE." We opened up the breathing treatment parts, and at first, hoped for the best. Oh but God is too gracious to just allow us to "hope". Before we gave him his first treatment, Adam and I decided to pray out loud with Jackson for God to bring peace and stillness to Jackson, to calm him, and to help him take his treatments. Adam was so sure God would do it.
And you know what? God did. Honestly, when Jackson sat still and did the treatments peacefully and calmly, I wanted to cry. I think I did actually. In that moment, I just realized that I needed to be praying and asking God for help for everything. Adam is not perfect (although I think he's pretty close), but for the most part, He has such a strong trust is Jesus' provision. Me on the other hand, I really struggle with that. BUT God has been changing me.
Now, I find myself praying and running to Jesus for everything. It's like a switch went off and I realized that God wants to do something powerful in my life. He wants to surprise me and show me His glory.
A few weeks ago one of our two cars died. The truck has been so faithfully running for several years, but after hundreds of thousands of miles, it finally just died. Which meant, we were left with one car. My first thought was, "Oh dear, what are we going to do?" BUT, God spoke to me again.
6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (Matthew 6:6-8)
And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 4:19)
I knew, not only does God know what we need, but He says He will meet our needs. So I've been praying those verses and believing those verses and expecting God to show up. The truth is, in my opinion, we don't "need" another car. We could certainly make it work, until we could afford to buy another one, but I wanted to see God show up. I wanted to trust God to provide. I knew that our circumstance only provided God an opportunity to do something miraculous.
And you know what happened? No, we weren't given a car. (Although I'm still not totally convinced He won't do that. Wouldn't that be nice? :) ), but we were "given" a car. Adam meets with several men on Monday mornings for a bible study. He shared with them some prayer requests we had, one being making our financial situations work for another car. They prayed, and another man prayed for God to provide us with a vehicle. Seconds after they said "amen" another man spoke up, and told Adam that this may be the quickest answer to a prayer he has ever received. They were blessed with 3 vehicles, and we could use their third car.
When Adam came home and let me know that so and so would let us use their car, I cried. I knew that this was God. I prayed for God to provide, and He did. I don't know how long we will use it, or when we will buy another vehicle, but I do know that God knows my needs, wants to meet my needs, and wants to grow my faith in the way He meets my needs.
And the truth is, He wants to do the same for you.
God wants to show up in your life. What are believing Him for?
love, love, love this!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
Ann