'Ask and it will be given to you; seek
and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.'
~Matthew 7:7
The entire month of October was a month of asking God for many things! Asking for my closest friends, my coworkers and myself. We were not asking to be greedy or to be selfish. We were not begging. We were asking because God instructs us to ask, to petition Him for the things we need and even the things we want. That's one of the gazillion things I love about God. He is all knowing, the designer of all things, the giver of life; yet He wants us to come to Him and ask for even the simplest things in life.
For several years now, God has been nudging me to write. As I told you in my first post, I didn't want to do it. I was scared, embarrassed, didn't think I had time or the skills required and so on, but I knew it was something He wanted me to do. I think it is so funny how much I love and trust Him, yet I was still so scared to do something He was asking me to do. Beginning October 1st I prayed that God would give me the courage I needed to actually sit down and do what He was asking me to do. On October 18th I was driving home from work and decided that I would finally just do it. It was sort of odd, I expected this big wave of confidence to come over me or the Holy Spirit to be like a cheerleader chanting in my ear saying "You can do it! Go Lisa Go!" or something similar. Nothing magical or spectacular happened, I just simply decided it was time and I was going to do it. God doesn't have to put on a big show to answer your prayers, He just answers them.
My courage to sit down and write bits and pieces of my story reminds me of another time in my life when I found courage. This time, I am certain it was an answer to prayers my parents had said for me. I was an extremely shy child. Painfully shy. From as far back as I can remember until I was in 7th grade, I always felt less than. I felt like I wasn't as smart as the other kids, I felt ugly, I felt like I would be made fun of if I talked to someone. It was horrible. I honestly don't know where these thoughts came from (other than satan himself). As far as I remember no one had ever spoken those words to or over me. It all came from my own mind.
I was standing on the risers in choir one day and I just decided I was not going to be shy anymore. I was tired of it. Nothing out of the ordinary happened that day, nothing special. I just decided it was time to lay down my shyness and pick up my true personality. That night I went home and told my mom I wanted some new clothes and that I was no longer going to be shy. Her jaw dropped to the ground. Retrospectively, I wonder if my request for new clothing was a burden to them? My mother put down her newspaper and took me shopping immediately. We walked into a little boutique and I walked out with a whole new wardrobe. Several days later, a bag full of hand me down clothing showed up on my bed. The bag held so many Gloria Vandebilt and Sasson treasures, I simply couldn't believe it! Don't get me wrong, clothes didn't change who I was.However, the clothes I wore before were clothes that were more fitted to an older woman than to a tween. I chose those clothes to hide behind. Part of me becoming me was allowing myself to fit in with the rest of the girls my age. God did so much in my life in just a few seconds on the risers in 7th grade choir. From that moment on, I was no longer shy. I have since found unimaginable courage in so many areas of my life. I have found confidence in my God given talents and abilities. I have discovered that I am beautiful inside and out, because He made me. I have found my voice and look people in the eyes. I have spoken at conferences in rooms that were filled with over 8000 faces looking back at me and over 8000 sets of ears listening to me. I have found the courage to tell anyone willing to read my blog, the truth about how amazing my God is!
It gives me chills when I think about how much God can do without having to show off. Just a gentle outpouring of courage can change everything in an instant. I am grateful for these quiet answers to prayer.
This month of asking also produced many gifts from our God that were a little more public and grand. I have a friend that has been praying for a job for over 8 months and He went back to work the week after Thanksgiving. During the 8 months of prayer this friend and his wife were diligent in their prayers, their tithes, their offerings and standing on God's promises. Oh, there were days of discouragement, doubt, disappointment, but deep down they never lost their faith and hope in our true provider. During this time without a job, provision came in so many wonderful ways. God is faithful all the time. Sometimes, it is just hard to see when you are in the midst of a storm. I love that this job offer came at the end of a month of intentionally asking for specific things, standing on the promises in Ephesians 3:20, having friends pray specifically for your requests and just in God's perfect timing.
I have another couple in my circle of friends that have been praying for a baby for so very long. God spoke to them at the beginning of 2016 and promised them a child this year. October is very late in the year to be expecting a baby by year end, when there is no baby on the horizon. In true and perfect confirmation of the promises that He can do MORE than we can ASK or IMAGINE, He blessed this family with a beautiful baby girl on October 16th. It was perfect timing. It was beautiful and it was more than any of us could have imagined.
As a reminder, here were my big asks:
My courage to sit down and write bits and pieces of my story reminds me of another time in my life when I found courage. This time, I am certain it was an answer to prayers my parents had said for me. I was an extremely shy child. Painfully shy. From as far back as I can remember until I was in 7th grade, I always felt less than. I felt like I wasn't as smart as the other kids, I felt ugly, I felt like I would be made fun of if I talked to someone. It was horrible. I honestly don't know where these thoughts came from (other than satan himself). As far as I remember no one had ever spoken those words to or over me. It all came from my own mind.
I was standing on the risers in choir one day and I just decided I was not going to be shy anymore. I was tired of it. Nothing out of the ordinary happened that day, nothing special. I just decided it was time to lay down my shyness and pick up my true personality. That night I went home and told my mom I wanted some new clothes and that I was no longer going to be shy. Her jaw dropped to the ground. Retrospectively, I wonder if my request for new clothing was a burden to them? My mother put down her newspaper and took me shopping immediately. We walked into a little boutique and I walked out with a whole new wardrobe. Several days later, a bag full of hand me down clothing showed up on my bed. The bag held so many Gloria Vandebilt and Sasson treasures, I simply couldn't believe it! Don't get me wrong, clothes didn't change who I was.However, the clothes I wore before were clothes that were more fitted to an older woman than to a tween. I chose those clothes to hide behind. Part of me becoming me was allowing myself to fit in with the rest of the girls my age. God did so much in my life in just a few seconds on the risers in 7th grade choir. From that moment on, I was no longer shy. I have since found unimaginable courage in so many areas of my life. I have found confidence in my God given talents and abilities. I have discovered that I am beautiful inside and out, because He made me. I have found my voice and look people in the eyes. I have spoken at conferences in rooms that were filled with over 8000 faces looking back at me and over 8000 sets of ears listening to me. I have found the courage to tell anyone willing to read my blog, the truth about how amazing my God is!
It gives me chills when I think about how much God can do without having to show off. Just a gentle outpouring of courage can change everything in an instant. I am grateful for these quiet answers to prayer.
This month of asking also produced many gifts from our God that were a little more public and grand. I have a friend that has been praying for a job for over 8 months and He went back to work the week after Thanksgiving. During the 8 months of prayer this friend and his wife were diligent in their prayers, their tithes, their offerings and standing on God's promises. Oh, there were days of discouragement, doubt, disappointment, but deep down they never lost their faith and hope in our true provider. During this time without a job, provision came in so many wonderful ways. God is faithful all the time. Sometimes, it is just hard to see when you are in the midst of a storm. I love that this job offer came at the end of a month of intentionally asking for specific things, standing on the promises in Ephesians 3:20, having friends pray specifically for your requests and just in God's perfect timing.
I have another couple in my circle of friends that have been praying for a baby for so very long. God spoke to them at the beginning of 2016 and promised them a child this year. October is very late in the year to be expecting a baby by year end, when there is no baby on the horizon. In true and perfect confirmation of the promises that He can do MORE than we can ASK or IMAGINE, He blessed this family with a beautiful baby girl on October 16th. It was perfect timing. It was beautiful and it was more than any of us could have imagined.
As a reminder, here were my big asks:
- Have the courage to write the book God has been nudging me to do for the last couple of years - as explained above and evidenced by this blog, God answered this so quietly, yet so awesomely.
- I asked for the bakery to bring in a certain dollar amount each day-for several days in October, November and now December this specific dollar amount was reached or exceeded, and I am looking forward to the day it will be met every single day without fail. I know it is coming, I know I have to work for it and I know I have to keep tithing and blessing others, but it is coming!
- For complete and total supernatural healing of my mother's seizures-still believing this one is coming! I think this will be a quiet answer as well, one day we will just say....."Oh my goodness! It has been 2 months since mom has had a seizure!"....and then they will never return.
- To lose weight-I am thrilled to report that I have lost 17 pounds in the last 6 weeks and I have full expectations that I will meet my goal! I have been needing to lose weight for years, but this time I am actually seeing results.
- And one more that is just too personal to put on this little blog-still praying about this one, but I have had so many God winks lately, that I fully believe God is going to blow my mind on this one. When He does, I will share all the details with you.
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