I woke a few days ago with a deep sadness in my soul. I said good morning to God, as I usually do, but the weight of the world on my heart was just so heavy. Some serious challenges have slammed into my life and I just needed to pray. I pray, a lot and I am thankful for a childhood church and parents that taught me the importance of prayer as a child. My conversations with God have been a treasure to me for many years.
But this morning was different. I had very few words, but they were important and heavy and all I could do was whisper my thoughts to a Holy Friend that has been by my side for 55 years. Sometimes, just to sit in His presence is enough. I know He is there but it was a dark time.
Sometimes, when I am in a vulnerable time in my thoughts and I need my Creator, I feel like a little girl crawling up in my Daddy’s lap; feeling his breath on my head and hearing his heartbeat as I lay my head on his chest. I picture God like that sometimes and I thank Him that my Daddy gave me that example of my Heavenly Father. As I sat with God in the very early hours of the day, before dawn was even on the horizon, tears began to fall. I was not sobbing; I was achingly sad.
I was thanking Him for His presence and thinking of events over the past couple of days. The day before, my daughter and I watched my Mom whisper her prayers of thanksgiving and her requests for rescue.
I began to think of the Holy Spirit and thank Him that His presence is always with me to lead and to guide; to pray on my behalf even when I do not have words and to teach me the ways of my Father in heaven and help me understand His word. I always remember the scripture that says, in Romans 8:26-27 “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. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because[a] the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”
Then, I was overwhelmed with this incredible realization and remembrance of something I hadn’t thought about in a while. When we built our house, friends and family came and wrote scripture on the framing of the house. We all filled the structure of our house with the word of God. The thought was overwhelming. I can’t explain the feeling that came into my soul. The fact that I was surrounded with God’s word written all around me as I sat in His presence. I could no longer see it, but I knew it was there in these walls.
My worship became more fervent, as I thanked Him for fellow followers of Christ in my family and friends that poured into our home and prayed over our home as they shared their favorite scriptures.
After my time in the arms of God I decided to look at the pictures that I had taken of all the scriptures that had been written. My heart leapt in my chest as I found the very first picture. Sometimes God just comes right out boldly to let us know that He cares and is listening and working and responding in our lives and that He loves us so much. This was one of those times. You see the verse in the photo that I included here.
“Now My eyes will be open and ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place”.
2 Chronicles 7:15
I didn’t look any further than this one picture. It was a vivid reminder that God sees me in my distress. He took the time in that very morning, long before the dawn, to listen to my prayers attentively; even the whispers, even the groaning of my heart, even the fervent requests, even the weakest of praise and worship that I made right there in my home. He took it all because He loves me.
I am His child.
