Choices

We all love having choices.  We love to be able to choose - tea or coffee, peanut butter or jam, marmite or vegemite.  Will it be the white top or the green one, the jeans or the skirt?  Will I go to town today, or tomorrow?  Will I surf the net or do my knitting?  Will I knit a top or a pair of pants?  The list could go on and on and on. 

Somewhere along the line, we get older and making the choices, and feeling like you have the wisdom to make the right choices get much harder.  What sort of things do you shield your family from?  What sort of hobbies can I afford to pursue?  What is wise to spend the families hard earned money on?  What job does the LORD want us to have?  Where should I be sending my kids to school?  Should I be homeschooling?  Wisdom - it often seems afar off and choices seem unclear and hazy ... and as we make them, we often second guess them and then start to live in a situation of unrest and unease about decisions that we might have thought earlier the LORD was guiding us into.

I was taught a lesson last night.  We had been praying about a decision that we could foresee in our future.  And the LORD clearly answered it.  BUT - it wasn't in the way that I had thought it would be answered.  He took the choice between two things away from me.  Option two was no longer an option due to a change in our circumstances - and to be honest;  I was grumpy.  I said to DH - I liked having the freedom to choose what I wanted.  I forgot that LORD is bigger than me, and forgot our prayers - I totally missed the amazing blessing the LORD had just showered on us - showing us His care in answering, extremely clearly, one of our prayers.  I stayed awake, tossing and turning and being grumpy about having my choice taken away ... until I started to pray for peace ... thank you Lord Jesus for being forgiving and understanding all our weaknesses.  It is my weakness and pride that was frustrated at having the choice taken away ... but as a new day has dawned, I am able to say thank-you Lord for answering prayers.  Thank-you for helping me to sleep with peace for the rest of the night.  Thank-you for showing us the way clearly!

I have found some verses about prayer as well as sleep ( a struggle of mine at the moment, due to pregnancy and a variety of other things) - perhaps they will bless you today in the choices you are faced with, or accepting the answers to the prayers you have sent up to the LORD.  Remember that the LORD loves us, cares for us, and supplies all our needs - this supply is way greater than any demands we can or do make on Him.

2 Chronicles 6:28-30

 ²⁸"If there be dearth in the land, if there be pestilence, if there be blight or mildew, locusts or caterpillars, if their enemies besiege them in the cities of their land, whatsoever sore or whatsoever sickness there be;   ²⁹what prayer or what supplication soever shall be made by any man or by all Thy people Israel, when every one shall know his own sore and his own grief, and shall spread forth his hands in this house-- ³⁰then hear Thou from heaven, Thy dwelling place, and forgive and render unto every man according unto all his ways, whose heart Thou knowest (for Thou only knowest the hearts of the children of men)

 What struck me in these verses was the promise that whatever person calls on the LORD - He will hear as He knows our hearts.

 Psalm 121:3-5

New King James Version (NKJV)

³ He will not allow your foot to be moved;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
⁴ Behold, He who keeps Israel
Shall neither slumber nor sleep.

⁵ The Lord is your keeper;
The Lord is your shade at your right hand.

Thoughts: The LORD is never asleep, He is always there to hear us, keep us and give us perfect peace!

  

Jeremiah 31:25-27

²⁵ For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.” (said the LORD)
²⁶ After this I awoke and looked around, and my sleep was sweet to me.

Thought: Once we fully know that the LORD is filling us up and replenishing us - our sleep will be sweet.

Revelation 8:3-5

New King James Version (NKJV)

³ Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. ⁴ And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand.

Thought: Our prayers ascend to the very throne of God - how amazing is that!!!

Psalm 42:7-9

New King James Version (NKJV)

⁷ Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls;
All Your waves and billows have gone over me.
⁸ The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime,
And in the night His song shall be with me—
A prayer to the God of my life

Romans 12:11-13

New King James Version (NKJV)

¹¹ not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; ¹² rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; ¹³ distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.

God does answer prayers - it isn't our job to try and fix things through our own strength.  We are privileged to be able to continue steadfastly in prayer to Him, and know that He will provide all our needs.  

Matthew 21:22 
And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”