June 17 My Prayer Jar

Friday Evening: 

“I am overcome with joy because of your unfailing love, for you have seen my troubles, and you care about the anguish of my soul.”  PSALM 31.7

It’s Friday evening, and tonight—instead of doing my regular routine—I felt God wanted me to take some time and review His faithfulness to me. I've been struggling with lots of sadness this week, for various reasons.

When I was cleaning out one of my kitchen cupboards a few weeks ago, I discovered my “Prayer Jar”, a gift that had been given to me by a dear friend back in 2013. I used it, as instructed, for a little while (most of 2013) but then I put it away. The idea of the jar is to write down prayer requests, date the request, put that paper into the jar, and then see how and when the Lord will answer.  

Tonight, I read each and every folded up piece of paper that was stuffed into my jar. Most were dated, and some had the answers and date written on the back—it was really fun and encouraging to read all of them. Here are a few examples:

January 2013:

• Received 4 bottles of Dawn detergent FREE. Dish soap was on my grocery list and money was tight this week. I went to visit mom and she randomly handed me a Meijer bag with 4 bottles of Dawn detergent inside! She said she always buys too many at the store and wondered if I needed any. So thankful!
• While I was on a paid ouse-cleaning job today with a friend, I was helping her out in the garage with one of those heavy-duty extendable ladders and somehow the extension crashed down and crushed my right hand! Oh no! I went for X-rays and there are no broken bones! Doc says my hand should heal up just fine after the bruising goes down. VERY thankful my hand wasn’t cut off!
• One week later … I played the piano for the first time in 7 days without pain in my hand! Thank you for healing my bruised hand, Lord.
• My dryer stopped working! The repair was $105 … much better than having to replace the entire dryer. PLUS, the pipes were kinked up and could have caused a fire (according to the repair guy). Thank you for protecting me, Lord!
• Yikes! My water pipes froze with this terrible cold weather but they did not BURST. Friends from my LOGOS class at church came right over and helped thaw out my pipes and clean up the water mess, all for no charge whatsoever. 

February 2013:

• Just exactly the day I ran out of honey (local, good honey from Robinette’s orchard—$13 per bottle) for my hot tea—I was really sad because I knew I couldn’t replace that honey anytime soon … I went over to my “nanny” job and Christine (the mom) handed me two bottles of their home grown honey (they have bee hives). WOW. 
• I got a phone call from a very discouraged friend this morning. God helped me to bring some encouragement to her as I shared this verse: “Do not fear anything except the LORD Almighty. He alone is the Holy One. If you fear Him, you need fear nothing else! He will keep you safe.” Isaiah 8.13-14  She received very bad news this week and was so fearful of what would follow. It was so good to be used by God to speak His Word into her life.

March 2013:

• My friend, Brenda, called tonight and shared how heart broken she is about a family member she was going to meet for lunch the next day. Brenda asked that I would pray about their time together. So I did! “Please, Lord, give Brenda and _____ a gift tomorrow—peace and joy during their time together.” Brenda just called me following their lunch and this was the very first thing she said to me: “God gave _____ and me such a GIFT while we were together! We had such a nice talk, and even shared hugs!” This was totally from You, Lord!
• I am meeting mom for lunch today. She has been very depressed and discouraged. I really struggle knowing what to say to her that would be of any help. I prayed and asked that I would feel God’s presence with me as I spent time with mom. I no longer felt afraid of her despair and hopelessness. God blessed our time together today.   

April 2013:

• Thank you, Lord! I found my missing credit card!

Not dated, but I think it was sometime in April:  My cousin, Annie, has a daughter (Anna) who has had two miscarriages in the last year. This has broken their hearts. Annie asked that I would pray that God would give Anna a baby (and her a grand baby). I began praying for Anna regularly. A few weeks later, Annie texted me about Anna finding a physician who could do surgery that would keep her uterus intact long enough to deliver a live child into the world. Anna had randomly googled this particular surgery, which is difficult and very rare, and she found one of the only two surgeons who do this procedure—one of them lives in Chicago!!! Right where Anna lives! (PS Anna has since birthed two beautiful, healthy girls: Ruby and Della, ages 8 and 3 respectively).

Early October 2013:  I wrote that I’d had a really rough few weeks with deep sadness that wouldn’t go away. The very next day, I had such a nice talk with Kelly and she spoke such kind words. Also, Christine prayed that God would “heal my wounded heart.” And Sunday, during class, Nigel shared a beautiful Scripture (but I failed to write the reference down) that talked about mourning. Nigel told me I had been mourning long enough for my losses and that the Lord wanted me to look forward to what He would do in the future. I was really encouraged by all of these things.

November 2013:  I was shopping for a Christmas tree for my little Beach house and saw a truly beautiful one over at Fruit Basket Flowerland—it was perfect for the size room I have, and it was gorgeous. BUT it was $240 and I felt the Lord telling me “No.”  I didn’t hear His actual voice—don’t misunderstand me—but I truly felt He would not be pleased with me spending that much money when I was without steady employment at the time. I drove over to Walmart to do a little bit of Christmas gift shopping and … I could not believe it! There was a very nice, just-the-right-size tree for $60 PLUS all of the gift items I was looking for were marked down on sale. I feel this was God rewarding me for “listening” to His prompting and obeying what He had said. So thankful.

There are more examples … but this is enough to post tonight. There are also many requests that have gone unanswered—prayers for a few friends and some family members to renew their trust and faith in the Lord. But just because I haven’t received answers doesn’t mean I will stop asking. I cannot give up. God has His own timing and His own purposes and plan. He has told me to "ask" ... so I will. 

My heart aches, for many people but one in particular tonight. I am asking the Lord to pour out His mercy on this dear person, open his eyes to see and his mind to understand just how deeply he is loved by God—and to once again place his faith and hope in Christ. 

“Have mercy on me, LORD, for I am in distress. My sight is blurred because of my tears. My body and soul are withering away. I am dying from grief; my years are shortened by sadness. Misery has drained my strength; I am wasting away from within … but I am trusting You, O LORD, saying, ‘You are my God! My future is in Your hands’ …”  from Psalm 31 (NLT) Good words for me tonight.

PS  I need to start using my Prayer Jar once again … just so that I can be reminded, always, of how faithful God is and how much I need to continue to trust Him.