Blossoming Blessings - Week 43, 44, & 45

I’ve mentioned before that delays of writing have not been from lack of available time but more so from lack a of dedicated time. However, this delay came opposite. Life has been quite busy and every time I think I have a moment to slow down and breathe, it picks up again quickly. Between work, school, and other obligations, there’s been little time to rest but a good amount of engagement and I’ve taken to new avenues of praying that I believe have impacted my relationship with Jesus. 

Though I have not written a letter to God in over two months I have been sharing my heart with Him on a continual basis. I’ve managed to not only read the verse of the day almost habitually, but I’ve also started reading the full chapter it comes from. Just this little choice, that takes no longer than 10 minutes, has allowed for new ways in communicating. It’s in these chapters that I’ve found words of encouragement, strength, and conviction. Words that I am able to repeat back to God, turning them into my own prayer for more of His kingdom. How thankful I am for these words that were inspired by God Himself. 

I’ve realized in my quest for prayer this year (though I’ve known it all along) that everyone has something they need prayer for and when I’ve been irritated by the unawareness in others (something we all have) or the annoyances that come with those irritations, I’ve tried my best to turn it into a prayer for that person. I’ve asked Jesus to bless those I’m angry with, to give knowledge to those who seem oblivious, and to guide those who aren’t even seeking. 

In these past three weeks I have seen God do many miraculous things. I have seen Him work in the heart of others and reveal His sovereign control over everything, no matter how small the detail. He’s come through on His Word to remain faithful and as I think about my own faithfulness I see how more attention allows for more revelation. I see how the more we seek the more we’re shown and how the Lord does not fail to open our eyes from request. 

There was a point this past week where my dependence on God was the only thing I had left. I threw away all my own thoughts and just started to pray. I prayed for a good fifteen minutes before I got word that things had started to move but weren’t clear of obstruction. I continued to pray. I prayed for another ten minutes straight. No lie, all I could do in these twenty-five minutes was pray and when my mind only slightly started to drift I quickly refocused it to my conversation with our King. Talking to God about the situation at hand and asking in confidence for His will to be done, trusting that He would provide what’s best, I prayed for what seemed like an eternity. Then when I felt like I had nothing else to pray I started singing. I sang the songs of worship that came to mind and allowed for those words to be lifted as prayer. How thankful I am for those lyrics (prayers) that have been written by friends in Spirit. Just over thirty minutes after I started this prayer His strength broke through. I got word on completion and obstacles solved. Praise God! In this setting, I praised His name in a room full of strangers, professed His reality, and gave credit to where credit was due. God almighty!

 Aside from my personal prayer life, I also called on a friend of mine to meet up and pray. We hadn’t done this together before and it had been awhile since we last saw each other, so we spent a good amount of time catching up. During this time I heard of and related to the struggling commitment it takes to spend time with Jesus. I heard of and related to the desire for relational inclusion but the hindrance from lack of progressive movement and shared of the recent trials that have been mixed in my blessings. All this conversation led to our time in prayer together. Not short, but not long, we came before the Lord with praise and request. Feeling His Spirit move amongst us, my heart was delighted, racing at moments, while my whole body remained calm. Not searching for things to say, but by letting Him lead, the time was well spent and I can’t wait for another. 

Wanting to stick with this corporal prayer, I had another long conversation with a different friend of mine that week. While talking about the happenings in our life we ended our conversation in asking each other for prayer but instead of taking these requests to the Lord separately we decided to come to Him right there. Lifting each other up to the will of our Father, we sat on the phone and engaged with God together, for each other. How blessed was that time and how thankful I am for these people of willing faith. May God continue to kindly surround me with the same.

I ask the good Lord to help me maintain these habits I’m starting to form because just today I started to feel a slip. I woke up exhausted and grumpy at that. I struggled to smile and wanted nothing more than to isolate myself in slumber, even after all the glorious things that have been happening. Thinking of reaching out for prayer I decided against it for whatever reason and wouldn’t you know it, a friend of mine, the friend I wanted to reach out to, checked up on me twice today saying I had been on her heart all day. Praise God! Even in my disgruntled way He is still looking out for me. He knows what I (we) need before I (we) say a word and how thankful I am to be a child of His. More Lord, please. In the name of Jesus I pray. Hallelujah, amen!