Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Lord, I Believe


I have some cool things to share with you that have happened this week but first I have to do a little prelude to tell you that I sit here writing with an incredibly grateful heart right now.


Today I have been worried out of my mind about something... and a prayer has just been answered. One I thought, honestly, would not be. At least not in the way I thought it would be.

My husband and I have a 9 year old Great Pyrenees named Bear. He is a bit like a crochety old man (Bear, not Husband.) But he's also intelligent, fun, and incredibly dear to us, and a very important part of our family.

He hasn't been feeling well for a couple of days and DH had to take him to the vet as an emergency today. I was worried sick. You know when you have that feeling in the pit of your stomach that something is dreadfully wrong? I've had that for about 4 days. Husband and I had to put down our other precious dog in 2001 and still aren't over it. Don't want to ever go through it again. But Bear is getting old. I have been praying for Bear all day. Please God, heal him, somehow, do your magic. Heal him. We can't do this again. All day I've been worried out of my mind, especially when DH called saying he was leaving in the middle of the day to take Bear to the vet. Yikes. I feared the worse. Thought we'd be putting him down TODAY, in spite of all my prayers.

Nope. The Lord has answered: Bear is going to be okay. Its just a UTI. Got him some meds. He's all right!! I started crying because I was so grateful, and as soon as I got off the phone with DH, this humble little gal fell flat on her face on the floor before the Lord in gratitude. Thank you SO, SO much. My heart is overflowing with gratefulness for God saving my precious dog.

Anyway, onto my original post:

So I got an idea from watching Joel Osteen (HE ROCKS!) the other day about saying out loud "Lord, I Believe" to receive the blessings the Lord has for us. Joyce Meyer has talked about this too, about how God has blessings stored up in Heaven blessings for us. But, we have got to BELIEVE to RECEIVE. I admit I have had a HARD time believing a lot of the time. But, as my faith strengthens, I have noticed that my blessings have gotten ...more apparent. Maybe I am noticing them more, or maybe God is pouring more out. Either way, its good.

So I wrote in my Bible in front of Genesis "Lord, I Believe". And I wrote at the end of Revelation "Lord, I believe."

Because I really, really do believe everything that is in those pages. I used to think the Bible was a bunch of made-up stories. Written by a bunch of crazy men telling lies. Thought Jesus was a nice guy, even IF he existed at all, but didn't have anything to do with MY life, because after all, I was running MY life just fine thanks and I didn't need any help from any god. (I shudder to think how I rejected God for so many years and hurt him so badly, but thankfully God forgives me even for that.) But at least now I can see how wrong I was, and my life has gotten so much better for it. I even still have had my doubts at times, wondering, can it really be true? Can God be THIS good? THIS loving? THAT COMPASSIONATE? THAT UNDERSTANDING? Even to ME? I have had to pray "Lord, HELP ME BELIEVE" at times. Because really, I have a history of mistrust and unbelief in all sorts of areas. God has answered that prayer and HAS helped me believe. And I have started saying out loud, "Lord, I believe" whenever I feel any doubts about anything God says.

Now here is the totally wacked out thing. Since I have started TRULY believing, and saying that out loud... I have had SO many prayers answered. And not just little ones. Some biggies (like Bear being okay.) I have had money provided that I needed. I didn't have money in my wallet for gas in my car this week. I KNOW I didn't. Then there WAS- $35 in cash in my wallet. (Its a long story-- but the money wasn't there, then it WAS.) All of a sudden, between Saturday and Sunday, I sold 6 things for some cash that I needed (not a lot--not even $50 worth of stuff, but its $50 more than I had before) so that I could pay for an eye dr appointment. Then this week I sold $70 worth of stuff on Ebay that I haven't been able to sell. I needed to make it somewhere by 7 pm yesterday but traffic was all backed up EVERYWHERE in Dallas last night. I prayed hard for the traffic to be moved-- and the traffic was GONE, even though even on the radio they were still reporting traffic accidents and backups on my route. Just things like that, over and over this week.

I have been saying "Thank you God" and counting my blessings an awful lot this week. Now, don't get me wrong. Its not MY words that have power. It is power in the word of God and its God who makes things work. Its not how long I pray per day, or any magical words that I say, although God makes it clear that we are to come to Him with PRAISE and THANKSGIVING and present our requests to him--we should spent just as much time (if not more) worshipping Him, as we do asking Him for things. Its God in His infinite power that makes things happen at His appointed time. THere are a lot of things I am still waiting on. Some things I may never receive. But for now, I'll just keep on believing.



1 comment:

Sara Harricharan said...

Glad Bear is all right, this is an excellent post, lots of food for thought here. Thanks for sharing!