I stand

I don't really know why I am amazed at the things God does for us, afterall He is an amazing God and I should never be surprised by His amazing acts. I pray for things, my prayers get answered, and then I act astonished that my prayers were answered. Why do I seem so astonished that my Lord answers my prayers and often times blesses me above and beyond what I asked for in the first place?

It kind of reminds me of the story in the book of Acts when a crowd had gathered to pray for Peter to be released from prison and they were holding a prayer meeting in an upper room. As they are praying for Peter's release, the Lord sends an angel and Peter escapes from prison with the help of the Angel. Peter then goes to the house where the crowd has gathered to pray and Peter knocks on the door. A young girl by the name of Rhoda goes to the door and in her excitement of seeing Peter standing there, she closes the door on him and runs to tell those praying that Peter is out of prison and standing at the door! Their response to the girl is, "You're out of your mind!" Now wait a minute, these people are praying for his release and when God acts on their behalf and answers their prayer they stand astonished that it actually happened!  I can only imagine what Peter was thinking as he stood at the door after having it closed on his face.

Little things have been happening lately in our life where I stand amazed at how God is answering specific prayers. He even seems to be blessing us in the little things. For example, this week is our Sabbath week from homeschool which means we get the week off. I prayed over the weekend that God would provide us with a good week despite not having much money at our disposal and also for some friends for the boys to hang out with this week, our neighborhood doesn't have any boys their age to play with and many of their friends are in school during the day which could make for some boring days. I could just tell they were craving some play time with boys their age and our normal group of friends we hang with had other commitments this week. So guess what happened? Monday afternoon a car pulls up in front of our house and a friend Jadon had two years ago gets out of his car along with his younger brother who is the same age as Camden. These boys live a few blocks away and attend the school behind our house. Jadon and the oldest boy were in 3rd grade together and this sweet boy remembered Jadon and wanted to see what he had been up to so his mom drove him to our house after school. Um, that doesn't just happen, I see God at work all over this. The boys played for a bit, the mom and I got caught up and a playdate was set up for after school today when both boys came over and played with our boys all afternoon. How cool is that! Thank you Jesus for providing this new found friendship for our boys! Camden has another friend coming over tomorrow afternoon too, it's been a good week and I haven't heard the phrase, "mom, I'm bored." It's been a great Sabbath week!

Another thing Michael and I have been praying about is our finances. With him out of work, things are tight, 50% tighter than our normal income to be exact. But again, God has been so faithful in providing for our every need at just the right time. Michael has had an abundance of opportunities to do side jobs for friends and the money he brings in is providing our every need down to the very last penny. Every bill has been paid for the second month in a row and our tummies are full and we are content. Thank you Jesus for your provision on our family. Just this morning we woke up to a thank you card left on our front porch with a gift card in it to the grocery store thanking Michael for some work he did helping our friends with their roof. With a dwindling grocery budget and still more days left in the month, this was exactly what we needed to get us to the end of the month. God is watching out for us and I stand in awe of His provision!

There is so many other things I could mention about how God is getting us through this time of Michael being without a job, He is growing us, He is teaching us, He is humbling us, He is doing so many amazing things and these are a just a few. At some point I want to sit down and share what God has been teaching us by way of our small group Bible study we are doing on the Patriarchs of the Bible. This study couldn't have come at a more fitting time, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob along with Sarah, Rebecka, Rachel, and Leah are just the friends we have needed to learn from as we walk through uncertain times. I'm sure God had the timing of this study all planned out to. More on that in another post.

So getting back to Peter and his friends. I wonder how God would have liked Peter's friends to respond when seeing their prayers being answered and Peter standing in front of them? Did it bother Him that they acted astonished? Is God thinking, "But I'm God, why do you stand amazed, don't you know I'm God and I can do all things!" Maybe He simply wanted them to praise Him upon seeing Peter and say "thank you Jesus, you have heard our prayers!" How does God want me to respond to Him as He hears my prayers and provides for us so abundantly? A song we sing in church come to mind and I think this is very fitting of how I should respond.

So what can I say
What can I do
But offer this heart O God
Completely to You

So I'll walk upon salvation
Your Spirit alive in me
This life to declare Your promise
My soul now to stand

So I'll stand
With arms high and heart abandoned
In awe of the One who gave it all

So I'll stand
My soul Lord to You surrendered
All I am is Yours


All He wants is me, it's that simple. He wants me to offer myself completely to Him with my arms high and my heart abandoned in awe of the one who gave it all. There is nothing I would rather do. So tonight, I simply stand surrendered to my God.