Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes...

Though uncomfortable for the most part, it is inevitable.  The reality is that we change every day without even giving it much thought.  As we are getting older, our bodies change...sometimes for the better and other times, well you know.  We daily change our unmentionables (hopefully) and our wardrobes change with the latest styles and trends.  When we get in the mood, we even change our hairstyles.  Your outlook on your health improves, so you decide to change the way that you eat and to take better care of yourself.  There is a false sense of comfort that comes when we feel like we have some sort of control over our lives.

But what about the bigger things? What about our preconceived notions on how things should be or our reactions and responses to others?  What about the plans that we have presumptuously engraved in our minds leaving no room for the Spirit to move?  Or even the comfort of doing what you are used to doing, even if it is not the best? How quick are we to change those things about ourselves, the things that really matter?  The past few weeks, the Lord has been continuously speaking to my heart about change.  I can't lie, when I first realized what He was saying to me, I reverted.."Oh dang Lord, what's going to happen now?  I don't think now is the right time! What are you going to change and will it hurt?!"  But then when I allowed myself to remember Who God is and that His thoughts towards me are always good, I once again gave Him my trust and buckled up for the ride.  Without fail, I was allowed to be in a few circumstances in which I had a choice.  A choice to do what I felt comfortable doing or do what I knew that the Lord wanted me to do. There is a big difference in the two and let me tell you, if swallowing your pride was easy, more people would do it!  Even in the midst of my new found way of doing things,  I had a peace that can only come from being exactly where the Lord wanted me to be, doing exactly what He wanted me to.

What we willingly allow God to change in us shows how much control we actually allow  Him to have over our lives.  I am not saying that I won't ever pick my comfort over what I know I should do, I am now just a little more aware and willing for the Lord to make the changes in me that He needs to so that can become the woman that He has created me to be. You ever hear of the quote, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks?"  Yeah right, I don't buy it!

Don't Stop!

A sweet lady named Sue came into my office today and after talking for a few minutes, she shared with me that she has been praying for her husbands salvation for the last forty years.  Forty years?!  Yep, forty years.  Every single day she pleads with the Lord for his soul.  She explained how his body is failing from a terminal disease and the things that we daily take for granted, like walking and breathing are taxing for him. She wasn't so much concerned for his healing, though she would love that, her main concern was that he would be right with the Lord.  I asked her if I could pray for her husband and we grabbed hands and once again gave the situation to our God.  Through the tears she admitted that she sometimes gets discouraged when it seems that nothing is happening, but then she smiled and quoted Ephesians 3:20, still believing that her God can and will do more that than she could ever think, ask and hope for.  She went on to proclaim how God's thoughts and ways are so much higher than ours could ever be and that even in this she trusted that He still has a plan for her husband.  With her eyes lifted up she said, "I will never stop praying!"


How easy it is to stop praying for a situation that seems impossible in our eyes.  Frustration and discouragement provide for the perfect formula to cause us to stop believing and to stop praying, the one thing that God tells us to do without ceasing (1Thessalonians 5:17).  Family members that are not walking with the Lord, people that we love that are snared in bondage, direction in a decision, or simply waiting on a sweet God-given desire, no matter what it is, don't stop praying because it is important to Him. Instead of allowing our not yet answered prayers to build the foundation of an unshakable faith, we allow ourselves to be robbed of the beauty that comes in the waiting for God's perfect timing. Like Sue, I pray daily for my husband, though I am not yet married.  It is what the Lord has put on my heart to do.  Do I get tired? Yes. Do I allow discouragement to take me out of being a part of the beautiful story that the Lord is creating for me?  Sometimes. Then the Lord reminds me of Who He is, gives me a sweet kiss on the cheek, dusts me off, smacks me on the butt and tells me to get back in the game!


What are you praying for?  Perhaps the more appropriate question should be, what have you stopped praying for?  Ask the Lord to show you.  Then go back to what you know to be true.  That God is good, that He hears the cries of His saints, that His timing is impeccable and that His ways are far beyond what you could ever imagine.  Don't stop praying!


"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." -Ephesians 3:20&21