Hello to all who have decided to follow along as I post for 21 days straight as part of our church fast. As you can see, each entry is numbered as a particular day, so if you are reading this and the title above doesn’t say Day 1, then you should stop now and go read from Day 1, or take a peek at Day 2 and pick a topic you are interested in. Thanks for being brave enough to join me.
Day 9 already? Wow! I hope you have enjoyed at least some of what I have written over the last eight days.
Today’s topic is just amazing. I had debated on whether to start this post yesterday, or write it all today, and I am so glad I waited until today because…God’s plans are better than our plans. Let me give you this simple, but incredible example.
I spent most of the day trying to figure out exactly what I was going to write in this post. The church has been over the whole “our plans versus God’s plans” a lot over the past year. Our primary “mantra” is based on Jeremiah 29:11, which talks about God having plans for us – to prosper us, and not to harm us. I was looking for an angle, a new perspective, another way to explain the same thing. Then God hit me over the head with it…
I received a text (and you probably did also) from the church about a prayer meeting scheduled for this very evening at 6:00. I got it while in the middle of work and didn’t think much about it other than “I probably won’t be going to that, because, supper and all”. I finished my work day, still wondering about what I was going to write in this post.
As I got in the car, my wife mentioned the prayer meeting and the fact that we were going…
Really?
Funny how God’s plans are so much better than our plans. Just before I got in the car, I had already started wondering what might be for supper. I had run through a few things, but finally let it go, as I figured my wife had it all planned anyway.
Nope. Well, she did have supper planned, but first, we were going to the prayer meeting.
So there we were at the prayer meeting. I was able to spend over an hour in prayer with others in the church. We covered a number of topics, from being a maximum impact church, to the city council meeting that was happening as we were praying, to covering the pastor in prayer, to covering the entire worship center in prayer. It was a good time.
I can’t say I was overflowing with great prayers, or that I was overwhelmed with the magnificent prayers that were lifted up during this time, but that had nothing to do with those who were praying, nor with the prayers themselves. It had everything to do with me. So I tried very hard to concentrate on the prayers being lifted up and to get behind them with prayers of my own, and to a degree I believe I was successful. My prayers were so simple and inelegant, but I lifted them up anyway.
It certainly wasn’t like the last prayer meeting I attended. It also wasn’t like the spontaneous group prayer in the worship service a few weeks ago. Again, it had nothing to do with anything or anyone but me. My simple prayers, as I walked around on stage and to the back of the worship center, were about three things – the worship ministry and how I could contribute to it, the people who sat in the chairs every Sunday, and asking God to help me to break out of this rut I’m in.
I have every confidence that He will answer those prayers, in his time, in his way, and in his plan, not mine.
Photo Credit – Photo by Milada Vigerova on Unsplash