God Answers Prayers

  Recall God's Activity. It is such an important step of our walk with Christ that I think we so often forget. We get caught up in the problems of today and the struggles we are currently facing that we forget that God has done some amazing and incredible things in our lives already. So, let's choose not to forget. Let us choose to give Him the honor and praise He so deserves.
 This being said, I have a story to share. :)

 This Thanksgiving was a very special year for me. A Zechariah 4:10 kind of year. "Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin." For the last several years my father has not celebrated Thanksgiving with our family. He has migraine headaches and gets very stressed out by the holidays. So he stays away by himself and the rest of us go to my sister's house to celebrate. I was talking with my sister this year and we realized it has been 6 years since my dad last celebrated Thanksgiving with us. This distressed me to no end. There MUST be an end to this. God has more for my father. I know it. So I felt impressed to begin praying for a change. It hasn't been the first time I have prayed for him to celebrate with us. However, it was the most serious I have ever been about praying. I texted a few friends and asked them to join in praying. I prayed. Then on the night before Thanksgiving I asked my mom to have a little prayer meeting with me. We spent a good hour or so just praying for God's activity. The word I kept getting while praying was peace. I prayed for there to be a literal peace 'bubble' around our house the next day. That Satan and his friends would NOT be allowed in our house. I felt peace about the fact that we would have peace in our house. ;) The next day......my dad celebrated Thanksgiving with us for the first time in six years!!! It was incredible! He spent the entire day with us too, not just at meal time. The best part of the whole day was...we go around the family and share things we are thankful to God for. They aren't short statements and for the most part it takes us several hours to all share. During the course of this sharing my dad was sitting on the couch and he fell asleep. in the midst of the whole family. This was a HUGE sign that God had answered our prayers for peace. My dad doesn't fall asleep easily, especially around our family. But he did. Because God answered our prayers.

I sincerely pray this story is an encouragement to you. 1 John 5:14-15 is so true. "This is the confidence we have in approaching God; that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of Him." When we are asking the things on God's heart. They will come true. So pray. Ask God for the things on His heart. Expect Him to move. He will.