Yesterday was a good day. I had a nice lunch with my 'old' friend and a good conversation. We have agreed we need to meet more often than just whenever we think about it. So I have already scheduled a date in February and we have it on our calendars. Friends are also important. I'm glad her husband saw to it that she would be taken care of when he passed. And she is. She misses him, of course, but financially, he left her in a good place. And that is a good thing.
Yesterday afternoon my youngest called and said his daughter was coming over, and later he called that they had reconciled. How grateful I am to God that He heard my prayers for this child and for this reconciliation, and He answered that prayer! All praise to Him alone. I am sad she is moving further away, but she is making her own choices. I struggled with it at first... but then God reminded me I have another granddaughter who lives in another city.... they all live their own lives. I just need to make more of an effort to go see them. It's just harder with hubby being a bit 'reckless' in his driving and won't - as a rule - let me drive. I'm anticipating a drive to Tucson in a few weeks (I'm hoping).
A friend at work told me about a women's conference at her church the end of February - and I really want to go. It's an hour's drive away and on a Friday evening.... and I wasn't sure hubby would let me. But I boldly told him last night about it, and I really wanted to go. I would take off work early and drive there in daylight. It's from 5PM - 9PM... and I will just rent a room at a nearby hotel and stay there and then return home the next morning. Win Win - right? And get this - he is all for me going as long as I don't drive back home late at night. I will register today for the session.
I did go one step further. I invited my little sister to fly out here on that Thursday, go to the conference with me on that Friday, we would stay at the hotel and come back home on Saturday, and she can fly out on Sunday. It's much cheaper than the Wild Women of God conference she wanted to go to... will see if her husband will buy a ticket for her to come out. He may not, because she has threatened many times to leave him and come out here to live. Even if she doesn't come, I am going to the conference. It gives me something to look forward to. And if I have a night alone and a morning alone, my wish will come true.
Matthew 17:14-21 (NKJV): "And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, "Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him."
Then Jesus answered and said, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me." And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.
Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?"
So Jesus said to them, "Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting."
There area lot of things that will not happen unless we pray and fast for them. That little word 'However' in that last sentence is the key that unlocks the statement 'nothing will be impossible for you'. Jesus told the disciples they needed faith, even faith as small as a mustard seed. Remember when, after John the Baptist baptized Jesus that He went up the mountain for forty days and forty nights and fasted and prayed?
If Jesus thought He could just pray and it be done without fasting, why would He have fasted like He did? I've never completed a 40 day fast in any form. Well, maybe I have, but it would have been just doing without dessert or something like that. I do love my food. The most I have gone without food is three days, and I was easily able to do it because God told me to do it.
Those three days are still vivid in my mind, although they were several years ago. I remember... God told me one day as I prayed to go on a 3 day fast to pray for others who were going on a trip to a conference. In fact, I was to go to that very conference, but He told me to stay home and pray for them. So I obeyed. I told hubby and he didn't give me any grief. I cooked him his meals and sat with him as he ate with no problems at all. I did not grow weary in my fast; I did not have hunger pains. I spent much more time in prayer those three days. And what an experience those that went to the conference had! But I wasn't jealous; I had my own great experience. I was obedient to God's Word to me at that time and because I obeyed, He gave me my own experience with Him.
One may think it is easy to fast and pray, but it is not. Even if it is just giving up desserts for a specific time - fasting is not dieting. It is spending more time in prayer; more time seeking God for an answer to what is on our heart. Which is probably perhaps a reason - even though I have prayed and fasted 'some' - that some of my prayers have not been answered. I keep praying - and I am praying even through this fast for these things to happen; but they all have to be in God's timing.
I pray for my children's salvation. Oh that they would turn to Jesus and let Him lead them! Oh the life they could have!
I pray for my grandchildren's salvation and reconciliations. O that they would feel the stirring in their heart to know Him as Lord. That they would let go of the past and reach for the future of all that God has for them when they seek Him!
I pray for my great-grandchildren, that their parents would teach them of Jesus, that they will know Him as Lord. O for the goodness of things God has prepared for them!
I pray for healings of friends and family. I pray for their salvation. Oh that I could be a witness of God's goodness that He has for them! He alone is steadfast and sure. He alone will not turn away when things are tough. He alone will walk with us through the darkest night!
Oh, that all my prayers would be answered! I will not see all my prayers answered... but I am confident that God will bring them all to pass in His timing. He's that good.
What are you praying for? Don't give up. Keep praying for that wayward child, that spouse who does not seek the Lord. Ask for the favor of the Lord. And see His hand provide.
Blessings!
