God is Listenin

Every January our church has a week of prayer.  For the last few years, the phrase "God is Listening" has been used during this week.

Our kids have been praying for a certain little boy in Africa for 21 months.  Every night at devotions at least one of them prays for him.  Sometimes all five of us utter his name during prayer.  Sometimes they pray things like "help him to get here quickly" or "help him to be home by such and such a date".  I'll admit, I am like Sarah (Abraham's wife) and I laugh to myself.  Because it seems that nothing ever happens quickly in Africa and sometimes it feels like nothing will ever happen.

You may already know the story, but the Lord says to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh and say, 'Will I really have a child, now that I am old?' Is anything too hard for the Lord?  I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son."  Genesis 18:13-14

We recently had an evening where one of our children had misplaced/lost an expensive pair of sunglasses and an ipod touch.  Both were missing.  We looked everywhere that we could think to look and couldn't find either.  I said, "You need to pray that they will show up".  The response I got was "God doesn't answer prayer".  I then gave the mommy lecture about how God does answer prayer, etc., etc.  He then said, "Well, God doesn't answer my prayers."  When I pushed further, he said God didn't heal Mr. Kurt (my parent's neighbor) and he hasn't brought Amen home.  Well, that's fair and honest.  God hasn't answered those prayers the way our human minds would like them to be answered.  Of course we want healing and of course we want quick response to our prayers.

Well, we prayed that both items would be found.  The sunglasses showed up that evening.  It took several days for us to find the iPod touch, but what was lost is now found!

And then this is what I found on his door.

God doesn't always answer the way we want.  But I promise you God is listening or listenin'.

I'm thankful that He hears all of our prayers even the ones for lost items. (We are currently praying for another child's prayer of eyeglasses to show up!)

"Is anything too hard for the Lord?"

But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.  
Micah 7:7

Nothing is Wasted

There's a phrase in John 6 that jumped off the page at me last year.  It's the miracle of the feeding of the 5000.  A little boy's 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish fed over 5,000 men.

John 6:12-13 says "When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, "Gather the pieces that are left over.  Let nothing be wasted."  So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten."

I feel like this could be the theme of my life right now.  I feel like we have prayed and prayed about our adoption.  We have fasted again and again.  I have cried and cried.  I have prayed and fasted some more.  If you were to find my prayer journal, you might be quite disappointed in me.   My conversations with the Lord in the past weeks have been brutally honest (I figure He already knows my thoughts).  The great thing is that the Lord is kind and compassionate.  He lets me complain and lay all my burdens on the altar.  He takes my wounded heart and wraps His arms around me and fills me with peace and hope.

We don't have any update on our adoption.  But this much I know, nothing is wasted.  All those prayers, all those tears, all those days of fasting, not any of them are wasted.  There is a song by Elevation Church that says "Nothing is wasted, You work all things for good."

In Steven Furtick's book Greater, he says "Sometimes as your faith is getting greater, your situation is getting worser."  p. 92

But "not an ounce of faith was wasted.  Even when it seemed as if He was deaf to their prayers, He was collecting their faith and making a plan to use it in a greater way."  p. 106

I honestly don't know about our adoption.  But I know that none of my prayers and that none of my tears are wasted.  He will use them all for His good in a greater way than I could even imagine.  And I know the same is true for all of His children.  We don't understand His ways or His timing.  But if He collects 12 baskets of leftover food from 5 small bread loaves and 2 small fish, then I believe that He can take my prayers and my faith and turn them into something beautiful!  Let nothing be wasted!