Are You There God ? It's me, Stacie .

Mark 11:24          

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have

received it, and it will be yours.

Last night I couldn't sleep. I wasn't restless, ill, over caffeinated or whatever the norms are for difficulty sleeping . It was somewhere around 4 a.m. before I finally dozed off . My mind was running a million miles a minute with thoughts, prayers, worries and memories of a sister in Christ that is going through a unexpected and difficult end to her pregnancy . Yesterday afternoon my sister in Christ gave birth about 6 1/2 weeks early to her son, Hudson . Hudson Phillip Cook is already proving he is the son of my sweet friends . Arriving early, over achieving and with a plan of his own . It kinda makes me giggle how is he already SO MUCH like his momma and daddy . While the circumstances have been scary and a real test of faith , I've been reminded over and over how in control God really is . My sweet friends are planners to the max . We all served together in campus leadership & ministry, and our favorite activity to do together was (still is) a fire drill . One of our favorite phrases during our 2 a.m. winter fire drills , "Uhm, A fire doesn't care if you have exams tomorrow, it's 2 a.m. or snowing. A fire does what it wants and you need to be prepared dear student.", HA!

Well, you can't prepare your self for this kind of experience . If so, I'm sure Hudson's dad would've done a drill of some sort . I'm making light , but in all seriousness these are the friends you call when you are "man down", if they can't fix it, they know who can . So, to hear that they have been taken so off guard in a situation that no one can plan for and to feel as though there's nothing I can do to help , simply breaks my heart . Having served in the ministry that we did , we are all natural "fixers" . "What can I do ? How can I help ? What do you need ? " are phrases we've all uttered probably a million times. Along with staying up long nights, making runs to the hospital, pharmacy or air port to help some one out .  That's just for each other not to mention the students we served . This is the type of situation that those kinds of questions have no answers , but simply to pray . And to be honest , it may be the most difficult thing for me to do right now . My hands are not busy in prayer, I'm not running all over the place getting "things" that are "needed" , and yet it is the best thing I can do for my friends . Funny how God showed me this verse just yesterday, before I was aware of what my friends were going through .

In the last several weeks God has been doing His best to get this idea etched into my brain . I've shared here about my friend Tricia and the medical situations she's been going through . I wrote here about my besties sister- in - law who at the time was battling cancer . Sadly A week ago today she lost her battle . This morning I was alerted to a close family member being ill and even now I write about another friend in a incredible situation and still I battle with the idea of prayer being the only option . As if that isn't the best option !! Why do I find it so hard to pray right now ? Why is it that's all God's given me to do in these situations ? Can He even hear me in the midst of all the voices crying out to Him ?! Have I used up my prayer allotment with selfish requests ?! I feel like a child looking up in the abyss of a big blue sky and asking , "Are you there God ? It's, me. You're daughter."

Romans 8:26         

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

Several years ago I traveled to El Salvador on a missions trip . While there , I gave my testimony  and I said the following (El Salvador journal entry) -"My entire life's purpose may be this moment . To tell you about God and how He's changed my life , but I'm not gonna know my life's purpose until I've completed it . So, I've gotta keep following after God and what He has for me. Step by step. That includes whatever He has for me here in El Salvador . I must live fearless. " That night God tested my words and true purpose . I got very sick and spent the next 4 or 5 days in a local hospital. By the 3rd day I began to battle with God as to why He even sent me there . How was this useful ? How was my being in the hospital & sick helpful to the ministry , the team, the people we were there to serve, and to Him ?! Eventually, I calmed down and felt His peace in my heart . I realized in that very moment that we are not all to be physically on the "front lines" . Some of us have to be in the "bunkers" helping prepare , protect , and praise . Through that illness I was given days alone to spend in prayer, on the spiritual "front lines" . Prayer for my team, the country , the people we worked with and those that had given to help get us there . Each night someone from the team would come back and give me an update on what the ministry had been like that day .  I was forced to realize I am not in control . God is . And with His mighty control, He has asked me to pray . He could've asked me to build a rocket, be a missionary to another country, go to the grocery store , or anything else, but He has INTRUSTED me to pray !!! Hot diggidy!!  Even as I type this the enemy is doing his best to lead me otherwise . But, this is a BIG DEAL !!! He has called us, in trusted us , and made promises to us that other wise will not be fulfilled, but through prayer . For those of you that are in the position I am in find a purpose in that very idea . You've been in trusted by our God ,who can move mountains with out us by the way, to come to the foot of His mighty throne and talk to Him on behalf of those that simply can't right now .

Matthew 18:19-20         

Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

 

Ephesians 6:18         

Praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.

I'm now praying with purpose and calling for my friend, her husband, sweet baby boy,  family, my other dear friends and my own family that they would feel the prayers of all those around them near and far . That there would be comfort of some kind in the idea that God IS in control . He heals, He prepares, He provides, He comforts, He grows and most of all He loves !!!!

And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.

1 John 5:14-15

 

Philippians 4:6-7
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

 

Psalm 50:15
  And call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me."

 

Matthew 21:21-22      

And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”

 

Luke 22:42
“…not My will, but Yours, be done.”