Monday, December 15, 2014

Recognizing God's Hand

It's finals week. 13 weeks of hard work and the time has finally come!! I'm really excited, and nervous, and probably unprepared. This morning as I said my prayers I asked for help to know how to best prepare for this week and the exams, essays, and other assignments that are required. When I checked my email about an hour later I discovered a note from my professor to our class with his suggestions of how to tackle this week, in detail! Answer to prayer? Absolutely!

Yesterday I prayed for strength to make it through a certain event, and to do so without having a meltdown (which has been happening a lot lately). I made it through, and I really didn't have to fight it too much. I truly felt the Lord blessing me to make it through that. Added strength in answer to prayer? Check

A couple of days ago I prayed for help to make effectively write my portion of a group paper in a fairly short amount of time. I needed it to be coherent, accurate, and mostly finished before finals week started. I said a prayer and started to type and in less than an hour had the information I needed to submit. I'm certain that wasn't me. Another answer? Definitely!

Three days, three answers. Does God hear and answer every single prayer? Yes. Does every prayer return the answer we sought? Simply put, no. But just because a prayer isn't answered in the way we hope or expect doesn't mean it isn't answered in another way. Sometimes I feel like I got the exact opposite of what I asked for. Other times, like in the examples I've had over the last three days, I've received exactly what I prayed for and mostly in the manner I expected. And other times still I am blessed with what I haven't even thought to request.

I'm posting this today because amid the many answers I've received in the affirmative, there are other prayers that have been said and I'm still waiting to see and understand the answer the Lord has or will provide. I'm posting this because I want to remember that while some blessings do take time, others do come IMMEDIATELY, and in a miraculous state that is what I've experienced lately. If the Lord can grant me immediately strength, information, and added ability, then He can certainly take care of every other concern or worry that I have. This is sweet assurance to me that God is guiding me along, reassuring me that He really is in control, and that I can trust that I am in His loving hands.

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