In these last seven months of marriage (today is seven months!) we have certainly seen our share of highs and lows, and I believe that in some small way, God is teaching us to abound and to be brought low (Philippians 4:12). I don’t know how else to explain my life lately, but it has been divinely planned, and I can see God’s fingerprints everywhere. I’ve been reminded to pray in faith lately, and these verses testify that if you believe that the Lord will do it, your prayers will be answered.
And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.
(Matthew 21:22 ESV)Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
(Mark 11:24 ESV)If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
(James 1:5-8 ESV)
Over the last several months, the pages of my prayer journal have been filled with several pleas to God, on behalf of our small group, and our family and friends. I've prayed, and seen things fulfilled, and I've cried over my prayers, not understanding why God didn't seem to be listening. But oh, He was! I just didn't stop to realize it. I had a suspicion that He may have His own timing, but I didn't invest my faith in that suspicion.
I've prayed over Matt and Gennie's wedding, their relationship, and their lives; I've prayed Matt would find a job, and after months without a single interview, he was finally hired, just before Christmas. I prayed Matt would pass the PE exam, and he did. I prayed Matt and Gennie would find a place to live, and that the Lord would help smooth over things in the days before the wedding, and He did: the wedding was beautiful! He was faithful.
I've prayed over my mom's reconstruction surgery, which went very well. She is still healing, but the Lord is being faithful to answer those prayers to heal her and restore her. I pray every day that the Lord would grant Mom and Grammy Cindy long, cancer-free lives, and I pray that for Laura and my dad as well. (I also pray that some people would quit smoking. It worked on my dad years ago!)
I've been praying that Meghan wouldn't have trouble finding a job as she prepares to graduate from Baylor Law, so that she and Sam can really start their life together - 8 years after they started dating.
Of course, I have prayed over our life here in Clarksville. I was so desperate to find friends when we got here, and I feel that every week, our relationship with our small group is getting better and better. There isn't one couple we don't love and enjoy being around - we are blessed in getting to occasionally host them at our home and enjoy time with them every week.
When I was looking for work, however, things seemed the most bleak. There were no job postings on CareerBuilder for an event manager in Clarksville, Tennessee. I've applied for jobs in Nashville, too, but they have been to no avail. In the busy holiday season, I cut back my applications, because there weren't many postings of interest, and I had visited Houston every week and a half or so between Thanksgiving and last weekend, so I wasn't in Clarksville very often, anyway.
The day we left to go to Houston for Matt and Gennie's wedding (last Wednesday) I got a phone call from the local winery, which I had applied to last September. They were updating their database and wanted to see if I was still in Clarksville and still interested. Thursday, I got a call for an interview. I was thrilled! I'd wanted this job all along, and it seemed that the Lord was in the process of working out His answer to my prayer. The interview was scheduled for Monday at 11:15 am, and by 3:30, they had called me back to offer me the position. Mind you, we had only been back in Tennessee for one day.
If that doesn't have God's handiwork all over it, I don't know what does!
Even more amazingly, the Lord ordained and aligned my quiet time readings to go with the situations I was facing.
Monday, the day of the interview:
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
(James 4:13-17 ESV)
Before the interview, I have to say, I felt like I had it in the bag. I still felt anxious (who wouldn't?) but I felt that God had prepared me for this. Regardless, this was His reminder that we never know what tomorrow brings. Well, for me, tomorrow would be the first day of work.
Tuesday, (today) my first day of work:
Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.
(James 5:1-6 ESV)
Now, this position is part-time and won't make us rich by our standard, but this is a perfect reminder that though we will now have a little extra income, we will not get to keep any of the things we buy or money we earn when we pass from this earth. Perfect.
If you don't believe that our prayers make a difference, I entreat you to try praying. Pray over a life-change or a situation that you would like to see improved. Pray over something you've struggled with, and watch what the Lord will do. He is faithful and He wants to bless His children. He loves them. I'm not saying to pray for your sports car, because I'll tell you right now, the things that moth and rust destroy aren't high on His priority list. Ask for things like wisdom, solutions to problems, jobs/provision... not indulgences.
Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” And he said to them, “When you pray, say:
“Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread,
and forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.”
And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
(Luke 11:1-13 ESV)
So pray over your concerns, the things that trouble your heart, in faith, and see how faithful the Lord is.
I've seen a cute sign on Pinterest that I think is pretty true:
The Lord's 3 answers to prayer:
1. Yes
2. Not right now
3. I've got something better in mind (this one applies to a sports car, etc..)
Anyway, that's where we are right now. I've just got a couple hours until my first training shift at work, and I am excited!
Let us know how you've seen Christ answer prayers!
Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.
(1 Thessalonians 5:11 ESV)
I'm feeling quite overwhelmed by the love of Christ today. He is good to His children, for His glory and the good of those who love Him.
Love,
Elizabeth
