The Power of a Praying Woman #2

As I jumped into Chapter 2 of the Power of a Praying Woman, I found the wisdom and insight I had received from Stormie in Chapter 1 was just as powerful and relevant here in the Chapter entitled "Lord, Draw Me into a Closer Walk with You"

Some favorite excerpts from this chapter are: 

"He will transform you and your circumstances beyond your wildest dreams if you will give up trying to do it on your own and let Him do it His way and in His time." 

"That insatiable longing for more that you feel, the emptiness you want those closest to you to fill, is put there by God so that He can fill it."

Let's look at the first one, "He will transform you and your circumstances beyond your wildest dreams if you will give up trying to do it on your own and let Him do it His way and in His time."

~ I believe the most important word in this whole statement is 'if', hence why I underlined it, italicized it, and made it bold. Read that statement again, and this time read it with a pause after you say "if". It sounds like my parents when they would lay down the rules for a sleepover or some sort of special thing I would ask them to do. "You can do this, this, and this IF...you finish your chores..." :) But the Lord is a great father isn't He? and He sure gave me some great parents as well. 

I see life as a hike. There are downhill parts which give us rest from the climb, however, if we go downhill too long it's bad for our knees and actually makes the uphill parts harder than they  normally would be because our legs are so used to going down and our knees are sore. Then, of course, there are the uphill parts, the hard climbs that leave us out of breath and asking for a 5 minute break. There are also level stretches where everything seems pretty good but kinda boring. We might get lost - lose the trail sometimes. We might meet others going the same direction as us and walk with them for a while. We see others going opposite directions, and we probably wonder where they're going and if their journey is easier than ours. We may even be tempted to step off our destined path to follow someone else's. 

Now on this crazy long hike called Life, we are given a map - the Word of God. Now, although God gives us this travel guide for us to use daily, He also asks us to let Him lead us day by day and hour by hour. 'Why would we need Him to lead us if He already gave us the handbook to life?' you may ask, and it's a very good question. The answer? - The directions in the guide are written in a language we are not born understanding, but are able to learn through His teaching. And as He teaches us how to read His words and understand them correctly, we realize that there is so much more in this map than meets the eye, in fact, it seems almost "alive" in a way; it is always giving new information and always revealing new secrets to more and more "hidden passageways"  on the trail. :) Also something the map is not very clear about is specific timing in important decisions we must make on our climb - when to make the right turns, when to invite others to join us in our travels, as well as which road to take when they both look the same. Therefore, if  we give up trying to do everything ourselves and give over the leader position to the One who wrote the map and built the mountain to do everything in His timing and His way, I think we'd get a lot farther and be in much better shape when we did reach the end. :) 

Alright, enough of the Pilgrim's Progress :) 

But I do believe that God's ways are always, always better "more educated" than ours could ever be. I mean, He created the world and everything in it -right? He's not only the professor in the classroom of life, He wrote the textbook, He signed you up for the class and paid your tuition. He has the answers to everything to do with living, breathing, interacting with others and dying. He's got it all done - not only because He created the whole game, but because He's done it all just like us. He came, He was born, He lived a human life, He had relationships with other humans on earth, and He died. :) He knows what He's talking about when He tells you to do something you don't quite understand. Maybe, just maybe, He can see a bit farther ahead than you can in the grand scheme of things. :) 

"I long to dwell in Your presence, and my desire is for a deeper and more intimate relationship with You...God help me to set aside time each day to meet with You alone...Teach me to pray the way You want me to...I thrust for more of You because I am in a dry place without You."

                                                      -Stormie, Chapter 2, Power of a Praying Woman. 

God Bless
Libby