Coming today

Our 2012 Prayer Team is arriving later this afternoon and there is much to do today to get ready. Maybe not so much to get ready for them coming, but things I need to get done today that I won't have time to get done the rest of the week that they're here :-)

The 2011 Prayer Team that was here a year ago was very instrumental in helping choose the area of the city that we would be working in and we're excited to see how this week goes. We do believe God will speak to the team and to all of us that are praying together with them for specific areas and requests throughout this week.

I've done several prayer walks before and several hour prayer retreats...but this will be the first time of spending a whole week where almost every activity is dedicated to prayer!

Right now for the ladies Bible study I'm a part of we're studying "Anointed, Transformed, Redeemed" and this week we've been discussing prayer....

HAHAHAHA oh my...I was just looking over my Bible study book right now to find a certain quote I wanted to share and I came across one of my answers I wrote yesterday...

the question is: "What did the Lord 'declare' to him (David) in the latter part of verse 11 (2 Sam.7)?

I wrote: "That he would have rest from all of his emails".

oh boy.

It should be, that he would have rest from all of his enemies.

My mind may have been wandering a tad there.

ok, back to that quote...

We were talking about how important it is to go to God, first, before making a decision or before acting on something. And then after talking with God, wait to hear what He wants the decision to be before acting.

"While he (David) chose to seek the Lord in silence and solitude before making another move, culture teaches us to fight fast hard, and furious. Our society encourages activity and busyness, especially when it appears that specific action is required...David's example shows us his strength. He determined that the wisest thing he could do was to spend time seeking God's direction. One of the most incredible benefits of having God's Spirit is access to the ear of God..."

I admit I like to make fast decisions, let's get this over with...but often when it's a more serious decision I hem and haw over it forever and get anxious about it, until I remember again the importance of sitting down and talking with God. I've loved our Tuesday morning for that...Dallas and I have started dedicating time while the boys are napping to sit down (usually on our own), I like to sit in the backyard, and spend time praying. I use a prayer journal b/c I like reading back on it and seeing how God answered prayers and to be reminded of the people I'm still praying for.

then...more quote...

"Why wouldn't we take advantage of having the ear of God turned in our direction? Only if we believe He's not listening or if we don't believe He has the ability and desire to assist us in time of need. If we truly believed the great God of the universe listens intently to the cry of our hearts and responds with power in our circumstances, we would never meet any circumstance without deciding to access the ear of God."

ok this is getting long. Hope you're still here :-)

Later, or maybe it was before, the book also says that we must believe that God is kind and good...like it says, only if we don't believe God is not listening to us would we choose not to talk with him and cry out to Him. I've felt in the past that perhaps God wasn't listening...but those were times when perhaps I didn't get what I was praying for...but at some point we need to put aside what's happened that didn't go how we wanted it to, and take the life we have and thrive in it and cry out to God and talk with Him...because He truly is good and while we never may understand why certain things happened or why God did such and such, the one thing we can understand that we can trust God anyways and move on.

Just some of my thoughts this morning. I share this with myself just as much as you, as I work to trust in God's plan for certain things that I'm praying about right now (and often even as I pray for specific things to happen...it is a lot about God changing my heart in these things or giving me peace in them...as those parts of trusting are just as important as "getting what we asked for")

all right, so my list for today. yes I'm a missionary but I don't sit around all day praying...for moments yes and as I go yes, but we still do have everyday things to do :-)

- pay the house rent
- clean the laundry room
- do 2 loads of laundry
- get the guest room ready for our team billet
- finish painting the bookshelf
- put everything back on the bookshelf and clean up the office
- go grocery shopping
- clean the house a little
- watch last night's Amazing Race :-)

on to it, then!