Answered Prayers

The past couple of weeks have been amazing and in the same way not amazing. More on the not amazing in a second...

Amazing. Well this has been because my Lord has met my needs and wants. Yes. He met both of them. I always get excited when He proves Himself faithful because it just keeps building up and up and pretty soon I will not doubt God at all. I love those moments. Not doubting God and I get to a point in life when I even look back and say to myself that "I wish I was back at the time when I didn't doubt God". Those times when I am for some unknown reason not having faith are not fun. Not even in the least bit. The times that not even a moment of doubt will come in because He has proved Himself faithful are full of joy. This I love. I love these times with everything in me.

I was asked around a month ago or so what my favorite part of my relationship with Christ was. My answer: His faithfulness. Most would probably say His love, grace or mercy. Yes, those are all equally important but when He meets me in my time of need I feel a renewing in my spirit every time. I love it. It makes me smile and take a deep breath and really relax because I know my God is there and watching over me while meeting my needs and occasionally my wants. I know He does this because He told us He would.

What did he do you might ask? Great question! Well I can't tell a whole lot of the story simply because I am not sure who reads this (probably no one) but who might read it in the future could potentially be affected by what I will share. So I will do my best to be vague yet explanatory all at the same time.

As you might have read in my previous blog my love for the opportunity to minister to those women that have struggled with abortion or had one or any of the sort. Basically my heart for unborn children and the awful "right" to murder them is something that grows stronger each day. When I got my job in November my worry was a typical newly married woman's worry of "how can I do all of this and work too". I was worried about keeping up with house cleaning, cooking, grocery shopping, meal planning, my relationship with Christ, laundry, and being awesome at my new job too. One other thing very important on my list was wondering how can I get involved in my community with the women involved in the abortion industry, both sides of it. How can I help them? What can I do to make others aware of Christ's thoughts of murdering innocent children. How can I love them better? Where can I serve?

So I continued in my journey with juggling all the new in my life and not doing a very good job at it not to mention thinking about adding serving in the area of abortion. The very issue God laid on my heart over two years ago. How was I going to add that into all of the this?-I thought. Man, after working full time for about 3 months. God has very plainly said He has had enough of me not obeying Him in what He has called me out to do. I politely obliged (with a few tears, I might add) and said "Okay Lord, I will serve You by serving these women). I quickly emailed the director of the Sherman Pregnancy Center (whom I have been in contact with many times before) and apologized for not following through with my earlier promises. I asked that I meet with her and get everything started to start volunteering at the pregnancy care center. She responded and we met.

With all that said I began praying and asking my lifegroup to join with me in prayer on what God would want me to do about this and working all in the same. I currently have Fridays off of work but my boss has asked that I consider working them, if possible. The day she asked that my heart just burst with fear. You see my plan was to volunteer at our local pregnancy center in Sherman on Fridays. I can't do both. I would have to choose one or the other and how do I do that? I thought if I told my boss that I didn't want to work Fridays that I might be passed up for the "promotion" that I was soon told I would be taking. A bigger role in the office, well a very large role. I quickly told myself that God had it all under control and I prayed for His will to be done in my life. I wanted to serve Him and ultimately He is who I am living for, not a job. If it meant I get passed over for a better position, then so be it. Serving God and loving people is what I am to do and the reward for that is far better than a paycheck here on earth. As we all prayed, I waited for God to move in the situation. Let me tell you, he did JUST THAT. He blew me out of the water.

Long story short. I talked to one of my bosses at work while we had some alone time going to a few places and she brought up God and relationships and lots of things. Little did she know what God was doing with our conversation. She told me that she had an abortion at 17 and not hardly anyone knew. She said she thinks about it every day but was made to do so by her mother. She had a bad childhood and was kicked out when she told her parents she was pregnant. Left alone she was made to abort her baby and move in with her mom whom she had never had a relationship with nor lived with. And life goes on.

In the midst of her telling me this story for an unknown reason to me. I had the biggest revelation. This was one of the reasons why I am at the specific job that I am. I had been wondering why I was there and what purpose for God did I need to live out there. I had been questioning that for awhile. You see, I always know that there is a reason for everything and through her story she confirmed the reason I was there. It was to help her through this pain that has been there for years. If the only thing I do is pray for her, when she has no one that even knows to pray for her regarding this situation then that is what I am to do. I also told her how I had left work early that week and never told her why until that night. I told her that left to have a meeting with the director of the pregnancy center and that my heart was to volunteer there, on Fridays. I told her that I realized that work had asked me to consider to work on Fridays but I was just honest with her and told her that I really wanted to serve our community and not be at work if at all possible. She immediately said that I had permission to be off and she was so happy to hear that I was going to volunteer to counsel girls that might choose the wrong decision, the very decision she made years ago.

God answers prayers. He very specifically answered two in that conversation that night for me. I am so thankful for our God who listens and knows us inside and out. How amazing it is to serve Him.