5 posts tagged “god's leading”
Answered Prayer
When Ron and I were first married, He was still a full time student. Two weeks before our wedding we were apartment hunting near Cal State Fullerton. Our budget was very limited, so all the apartments we looked at were depressingly run down or more than we could afford.
We stopped for lunch and decided we had better pray about finding the right place to live. After lunch we went to a market for a paper, and as we sat in our car looking at the rental section, a man walked up to our car and asked us if we were looking for an apartment. He said if we would follow him, he would show us one he had available.
We followed him to a beautifully landscaped apartment building, newly painted, quiet, two bedrooms, one mile from the college and just the amount we could afford to pay. Over the next month, God directly and speedily answered our prayers for various financial needs. In the years to come we would learn about waiting on the Lord for answers - but I think when we were starting out, He just wanted to point us in the right direction.
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Do you remember a time when God obviously answered a prayer for help and guidance?
Read Genesis 24
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“… (if) she says, 'Drink, and I'll water your camels too' – let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master." Before he had finished praying, Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder. Genesis 24:14-15 NIV
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Abraham wanted to find just the right wife for his son Isaac – someone from his own people, not from the Canaanites among whom he lived. So he sent his most trusted servant on a journey to his home country. Both Abraham and his chief servant believed that God would lead him to the right young woman. Abraham said, "The LORD, the God of heaven…who spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, 'To your offspring I will give this land–He will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there." (Genesis 24:7)
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It is so important to pray for our children’s future spouses. What better time to start than now, while they are young, covering that child and his parents in prayer throughout their lives.
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Lord, help us to teach our children to seek Your wisdom in every small or large decision. You know the future and You have a plan for each one of them. Help them as they step out into life to make choices according to Your perfect will.
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Then the man bowed down and worshiped the LORD, saying …“As for me, the LORD has led me on the journey”
Gen 24:26-27 NIV
Not long after we began to home school our children, we installed a new computer - at my insistence - hidden in a roll top desk. I was actively resisting this evidence of modern technology cluttering my early colonial decor. But with all my resistance, it was I who spent the most hours typing away on the Word Processor. You see, God was not going to limit my ministry to teaching my own children - instead He expanded it to include children I will not meet until I get to Heaven.
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In the mid eighties, home schooling was a new and novel idea to most people. A gentleman in our church who heard I was teaching my Kindergarten through ninth grade children, assumed that I must know something about those age groups. This was significant to him because he was the editor of a Christian Education publishing house that provided curriculum for children and teens. He asked for a sample of my writing and before I knew it,I was working right along side of my kids - developing materials for a children's program and later Junior High youth groups.
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Today, as I am just learning about blogging, I am once again aware that God always answers prayers for ministry. If we desire to serve Him - He will open the way, and make in fit perfectly with the ways in which He has gifted us. I would have never guessed that God would use my enjoyment of writing along with my commitment to my family.
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If you are reading this, you are probably already more savey about computers and the internet than I am. Have you considered how God could use this tool in your hands to minister to other people and bring glory to our Lord? I would love to hear your comments.
One of the advantages of having a few years under our belts is the ability to look back and see how God has worked in our lives and led us into His will. There is often a defining moment when God points us in a certain direction.
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One of those was an end of the year school picnic when I overheard one of the mothers talking about her plans to home school the next fall. This was a new idea for me, and I was interested in hearing all about it. To make a long story short - we started homeschooling the following September and continued for the next thirteen years.
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We began with our sons - in ninth grade, second and kindergarten. By the second semester, our eleventh grade daughter joined us. Every once in awhile I would stop and wonder how it was that we came to this place in our family history. All I could do to explain it, was to say that God just picked us up and put us into homeschooling.
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Not only did the Lord lead us to teach our own children, He eventually opened the way for us to take on the leadership of our Independent Study Program with other families. Our common bond was that we were all Christians and most of us had teenagers. In the early years of homeschooling it was more of a challenge with teens because they had been in school for the early years. There was a general "unlearning" that needed to be done, especially in the areas of obedience and respect for the teacher.
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I am very thankful that we had the opportunity to train our children to be respectful and love their parents and each other. Now that they are all adults, and friends with each other and us - I especially thank the Lord for leading us in that unexpected direction.
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Have you considered the possibility of homeschooling? What are your thoughts about this?
Continuing with thoughts about ministry and prayer: When Ron and I moved to the San Diego area, we attended a large church. I joined the choir and was soon singing solos in church, and leading the opening songs in Junior Sunday School. Because the church was so large, the exposure brought invitations from other churches, women's events and so on.
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After our third child was born, I began to wonder if I should cut back on some of my singing engagements, or keep on with this ministry, which I loved. My friend, who was also a singer, suggested that I spend a day fasting and praying about what God wanted me to do.
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Two days after my day of prayer, the area representative for Christian Women's Clubs called and asked me to pray about - not answer yet - being the Chairman of the local Christian Women's Club. This was definitely not something I would have aspired to do - but after spending such earnest time in prayer, I decided this was the Lord's leading. I served in that position for a year - expanding my singing ministry even further.
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Have you ever spent extended time in prayer with the result of definite leading in a direction you didn't expect?
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SAHM! Updated: Yesterday
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Find The Time in 2009 and Do it Again in 2010! (host) Updated: Yesterday
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Rethinking The Church & Its Relationship to the Community Updated: 2 days ago
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