Unexpected Answer to Prayer

Last month I was so blessed to be able to go to the International House of Prayer in Kansas City for three days! I also visited with a very dear friend whom I have known for over 15 years but rarely get to see.

While I was in the prayer room, I was crying out to God that I really need Him to meet me daily with the strength and energy I need to care for the family He has given me. Instead of whining about it like I mostly have in the past, I simply came to Him in trust, knowing that He must have a way of providing for me since He gave me these responsibilities. In response, I felt that He promised to give me a burst of energy each day to help me accomplish more. Not just to push through the weariness, but to be able to run like a sprinter. I expected that burst to come during nap time, buying me a couple of extra hours each day to get something done instead of sleeping. Instead, He has been getting me up early!

I have never been (voluntarily) an early riser. But He has given me the faith to set my alarm for 5am every day so I can get most of my daily chores done and have an hour for quiet time with Him before the kids get up. And I am experiencing that burst of energy that He promised me! I am still often tired during the day, but not more than before. And I am so much more relaxed with the kids because I am able to get so much more done. I don't feel pressure during the day to try to get so much done while they're clinging to my legs (which just drives me crazy) and instead I can sit down and take more time with them during the day. I'm also slowly starting to be able to get control of some other organizing and cleaning projects that I haven't been able to get to for a long time.

I am so grateful that the Lord is meeting me in this totally unexpected way. I am still taking naps each day (totally crashing for an hour or two in the afternoons is a better way to put it), but I am in a better mood overall and feeling more hope than I have for a long time. In fact, I look forward to waking up each morning to have those uninterrupted hours of feeling good and getting stuff done!

My prayer for you is this: that you will open up your heart to the Lord in full trust, asking Him for what you really want and need. He wants to meet you there! I pray that the answer will come quickly and that you will be given the faith to step out and do what He says, even if the answer isn't what you expected.

Oh, how He loves us!

Peace and Faith

I was so encouraged by these words that I heard in the prayer room yesterday (sung by Justin Rizzo and his team on the Friday 10am set) that I thought I would put down some of them here:

Be anxious about nothing
In all things give Him praise
Be anxious about nothing
In all things give Him thanks
Be anxious about nothing
But give glory to the Lord

Your peace is coming to my soul
Like the calm after the storm
Your peace is coming to my heart
Your peace is giving me a fresh start

Cloudiness is gone, all the haze as I gaze upon Your face. Nowhere in Your Word did you encourage me to live by my own reasoning, my own logic. How many times did you say, "O, you of little faith"? I think I have too much common sense for my own good sometimes. There's no common sense in faith. Faith is believing. Faith is trusting that the Red Sea will part, that the blind will see, that the dead will live.

Could it be that You're keeping my future fuzzy that I would grow in faith? Could it be that You're that in love with me?