We need God. That's how He created us, to need Him. In fact, when Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, they became sinful when they thought they didn't need God anymore (yes, the tree...the fruit...the serpent...but the principle is that they thought they could do it on their own). So the past couple of weeks have been extremely...needy. First, our family friend was hurt in Iraq while serving our country, and is still in the hospital up in Maryland. He'll be there for at least a year. He is having several surgeries a week and has been sedated most of the time. He doesn't even know what's going on, or that we've almost lost him a couple of times. Then, last Thursday, Hannah passed away. This was more expected than Andrew's injury, but still the grief can be overwhelming.
Amidst these hard trials that I am watching other people go through, God has placed some tremendous blessings in my life. Perhaps God is using these things to encourage me and to help me through. Very likely, because prayer is also a way to give thanks to God...
"be thankful..with gratitude in your hearts to God...giving thanks to God the Father through Him..." Colossians 3:15-17
Another thing, one of my very close friends is being severely affected by an eating disorder. I know it's all mental, but it's also a sickness that needs to be treated. She was almost to the point of killing herself. Today was officially her second day in a Christian recovery facility. She's like my sister. I don't have a sister, but she's the closest thing I've got.
God cares about these stresses in my life. He says so! (1 Peter 5:17) So, why does He care? Well, through the years I have learned that He cares because He loves me. No matter if something is big or small, we should never hesitate to take it to God. We think "He already knows, everybody's praying about that," or "it's not that big of a deal, He won't care about something that small..." But, the truth is, if it's on our hearts, He wants to hear about it. He loves us! But not only that, when we tell God what's really on our hearts instead of what we think we should tell Him, I think it pleases Him. In fact, I know it does.
If you want to know the truth, while God has been showing me these things specifically the past few weeks, it's been a theme of my semester. Life, too I guess. But it all stems from a moment so vivid in my mind, "Why do we pray then?" was her question. I didn't know how to answer her, but I did tell her that communication with our Saviour is the most important thing in our lives. At least it should be. So why is prayer always the first thing to go when we get stressed, when we're running out of time? Because we are toying around with Satan's temptation that we can "do it on our own."
Even during trying times, we may not be happy. But as a dear friend has re-emphasized in my life, happiness is based on circumstances, but JOY is a fruit of the Holy Spirit and is based on the "eternal glory that far outweighs them all!" (2 Cor. 4:18). I'm spending eternity with Jesus! That's something that warms my heart.
I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all of my heart;
I will glorify your name forever.
For great is your love toward me;
you have delivered me from the depths of the grave
Psalm 86:12-13
*amanda*
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