Do Not Worry!!

Life is complicated. But its difficulties make us ever more thankful for the true family and friends that we have.

Sometimes it's hard to hear that someone is not rejoicing with us in our blessings, but that they are in fact reacting with jealousy and anger. It really saddens me.

But when I look at how precious my loved ones are, I am so grateful. Joaquim and I had such a sweet talk last night, though late. Struggling with a difficult choice, I called him at nearly midnight my time, knowing it was almost 2am for him and I would probably be waking him up. Usually he would a) not hear the phone or b) fumble to answer it and not wake up until we'd been talking for 5 minutes. Last night, however, he answered right away, seeming very perky and awake! Apparently he had just gotten out of the shower. At 2am. After talking until late with his sister and brother-in-law. Who are wonderful and dear to us. And then we had a wonderful chat!

Last night at my small group, in which we're learning about God's design for the tabernacle and how His dwelling place is now in our hearts, I was so convicted and challenged and ENCOURAGED about prayer. What a GREAT God we serve!

Zechariah and Elizabeth were the perfect examples of how God hears our prayers. Beth Moore, in her video, painted such a vivid picture of how old they in fact were, and how long they had prayed for a son, and how incredible it was that Elizabeth was pregnant, probably after she had gone through menaupause. Pretty amazing! We've heard about that miracle and read that story, about how Zechariah saw an angel, then was mute, blah blah blah...but I think I have missed the most important part of that story. The part where Gabriel says "your prayer has been heard." How many prayers have you prayed? Isn't it humbling and encouraging to think that they don't just poof once they leave our lips. They are all carefully kept and answered, one by one...some take longer than others. Sometimes the answer isn't what we want, though it is for our good. But they all get answered. It reminded me that repetition isn't the key to success here. Sometimes I think that maybe if I pray the same thing every day, God will hear me better. Or the requests will just pile up so much He will eventually be forced to pay attention to me. Not so!! He is ALWAYS paying attention and he receives our prayers as fragrant insence the moment we utter them.

After the video, a girl in my small group shared a REALLY cool story. She knows a woman who recently had to go in for an MRI. It took about an hour and they were checking her brain for something. She was nervous thinking about being in such a small place for a whole hour, so she prayed to keep her mind distracted during the procedure. When it was over, the doctors mentioned that they could tell she was praying. She was surprised and asked how in the world they knew that! They said that when a person prays, they don't use the usual "thinking/processing"part of their brain, but they actually use the communication part. When we pray it is NOT just talking to no one. It is COMMUNICATING with a Holy God! And he hears.