the roof settled back in its place

 I’m not sure just how it happened, but my prayer time has really developed these last few months.  Maybe it might have something to do with working my way through “The Best of Andrew Murray on Prayer,” with the focus recently on intercessory prayer.  Maybe it has something to do with being home all day long and having more time to focus on prayer…though a lot of it happens at night or early morning.  Maybe it comes from listening to people differently.  However it happened, I have been deeply burdened by the weights so many people are carrying this time of year.

Yesterday as I was praying, I was feeling especially heavy as I prayed for a number of people I have committed to, and then as I prayed for other things God brought to my mind.  I think it is valuable to feel the weight; it shows you really care about people, but I knew I needed refreshment as I finished my time in prayer yesterday.

Then one of those divine coincidences, an angel’s touch, perhaps.  One of the sources I use for my time alone with God referenced Psalm 63, and I knew something important was happening.  So I read Psalm 63, then 62, then 64-67.  What a time of rejoicing and remembering God’s goodness.  Let me share a few phrases from these passages:

My soul finds rest in God alone…He is my rock and my salvation. He is my fortress and I will never be shaken. ..Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from Him.  He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress.  I will not be shaken….He is my mighty rock, my refuge.  ..O God, you are strong and you O Lord are loving… .Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.  My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me…Come and see what God has done, how awesome are His works in man’s behalf!                                                                                        

Then last night, as I rehearsed those passages, especially the last one, it occurred to me that it might be helpful to think through some of God’s works in my behalf.  Maybe because I have been working on my memoir, I remembered standing in our kitchen with my kids and looking up to see the harmattan winds lifting our roof off.  We knelt and prayed and the roof settled back in its place.  I thought then about what could have happened if the roof had gone flying, the wind blowing all manner of debris into the house and sucking out all manner of things.

I remember when Beth was sitting on the porch reading her Bible, and she called out “Snake.”  There at her feet a viper writhed.  She could have been bitten, but she wasn’t.  I prayed that God would protect my children, and I know that I don’t know all the times He did that – like keeping little Jim from blood poisoning when a long thorn drove bits of tire into his foot from his flip flops.  And then there was the day Daniel, a Bible school student who helped us, came in early, and saw the stranger I was entertaining in the living room; he said he wanted to talk to my husband who was teaching.  Daniel called me aside and asked me why I was giving coffee to a “voleur” or thief.  God protected us, and with Daniel there, the voleur decided he would go….and God brought many other things to my mind.

 All of that to say, we need God.  He will be faithful! He has been faithful!  He will be faithful!  He just wants to hear from us.  And there are  lot of people who need us to pray for them; God will answer.  I know sometimes the answer is different from what we think is good, but He sees the end from the beginning and knows how to give good gifts to His children.  We just need to rehearse His faithfulness in the past, and trust Him for the future.

photo from   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moro_Rock