For the past few months, I have been praying every day but my prayer times have felt kind of...dry. I'm putting in the time, I'm doing all the things, but I'm not really hearing a lot from the Lord. Praying has been more of something I have to do versus something I delight in doing. I guess it comes down to the fact that it's hard to talk to someone every day when you aren't really hearing much back.
It was really starting to bother me because I usually have a pretty good prayer life. I usually hear from the Lord several times a week, if not more. I tried changing things up, I read some new spiritual books, I prayed and asked God to "make it all better." I like having a vibrant prayer life over a ho-hum prayer life. And I am pretty confident God would agree with that.
Friday I was praying about direction for my life. I have a few big decisions I need to make coming up. As I was praying, I felt God speak pretty clearly:
Lisa, I will never leave you nor forsake you. But I'm sorry, there are no billboards in your
immediate future. Instead, I will hold your hand and lead you day by day, which requires
intimacy and daily trust. Today you are going to build up person A. Tomorrow you are
going to build up person B. Sunday, person C.
Yes, I was hoping for a billboard, because that is way more "exciting" and "big" and "flashy." And yet, God holding my hand? Pretty amazing. Him wanting to be with me every day, every step of the way? AWE-some!
Then as I thought about the second half of what God said to me, about building these specific people up, I kind of felt skeptical because I wasn't even planning to see 2 of the people at all this past weekend. But, God said it so it must be true.
Friday my plans changed and I ended up spending lots of time with person A, who was struggling with discouragement and burnout. I was able to brighten their day a bit and encourage them.
Early Saturday morning one of my kiddos decided it was time to experience what norovirus is all about, so all our plans for the day were cancelled. Which then allowed me to spend time with person B because I was no longer busy.
By Sunday I had completely forgotten about what God had said until today when I went to write in my prayer journal and reread it. And I realized that I had only seen person C for maybe 5 minutes, but it was enough to pray with them for a decision they had to make.
God was right! Okay, I know God is always right, but on Friday morning I had this set of plans that ended up being completely changed due to circumstances and illness which opened the door for God's plans. When I looked back and saw that message from God, I was like, wow. That's really cool, God. I did hear You.
So now I'm all, "What's on Your agenda next, Lord?? I'm ready. I'm pumped. I can do this day-by-day stuff. It's kinda fun." Who needs a billboard anyway when you have God right there with you leading you by the hand?
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