For the last two and a half years I have kept up with "A Thought-A-Day Journal". This is where each day I write a couple of liners down that happened throughout my day that I hope to look back on the next year and remember. This journal is made to be used for five years!
The other day I was joking with some friends that know I keep this journal about what could be written about my day... We decided it would say something along the mundane lines of, "I woke up. I worked. I ran. I went to bed." Nothing special or out of the ordinary. Little did I know that I would meet someone that evening that would touch my heart and teach me about devotion to the Lord.
As some of y'all know, I am not always the promptest of people when it comes to being somewhere. If something is made to sidetrack someone it will sidetrack me. Arriving somewhere on the exact time I said I would currently isn't my forte. This particular evening I was thankful for that.
As I showed up a whole forty minutes late to my running buddy Aspen's apartment, I simply just had to apologize. She didn't mind though because she was enraptured into the book she was currently reading and kept me waiting so she could finish her pages.
By the time we were both set to run my watch showed that it was just shy of 10 p.m. We ran a loop that took about 45 minutes and when we got back, for whatever reason, we stood outside for an abnormally long time enjoying the weather together.
While standing next to her truck, we heard a funny sound and thought it must be coming from an apartment... Looking around we saw a white truck in the parking lot a few cars over with the shadow of someone belting out to Spanish tunes. We got so tickled and assumed it was a teenage boy singing.
As we stood, watched, and listened I said to Aspen, "Dare me to scare him? You can stand here and watch his reaction." For whatever reason, Aspen (surprising me) agreed and thought it would be hilarious! So of course I proceeded and snuck around the backside of the truck, jumped out, and yelled.
To my surprise an older Hispanic woman opened the door and, in her broken English, told us how she was practicing a song she was planning to sing in front of her church that Sunday. She told how she gets so embarrassed to get in front of people with all eyes are on her.
As we laughed for a while at the fact that we just tried to scare this woman she began to tell us how her husband of 25 years divorced her because she was "ugly". She told us how he had moved on from her to another younger more beautiful woman. She told us how she now lives with her kids because she cannot afford to pay rent for her own home. For her, work is hard to come by and all her things had recently been stolen from someone breaking into her apartment. She explained that her three kids spend their nights drinking beer in their apartment and she doesn't want to enter in until they have fallen asleep.
As we saw, and interrupted, this lady chooses to sit out in the apartment complex's parking lot in her truck singing praises to the Lord. She told us how she spends her time praying, asking the Lord to save her children. With it already being well past 11 p.m., she explained how every night she stays in her car for hours doing these things until she sees the light click off and she then makes her way into the apartment for the night.
Both Aspen and I broken hearted and blessed by this lady's story and faith, we prayed for her, we encouraged her, and were encouraged by her. This woman's trust that the Lord will provide for her needs as well as her family's was so strong! She is a new believer, only a Christian for one year, and her devotion to the Lord is as if she has spent years in His presence.
Recently I have been studying through James with women in my church. Tonight we read through James 5 and discussed how at the end of the chapter it gives an example of an Old Testament character, Elijah, who was fervent in his prayers. James 5: 17-18 reads:
As pointed out in our bible study, the above verse shows us how Elijah was a man with a nature just like ours! He was a man whose prayer life was powerful and effective. To paint a picture of praying fervently you wouldn't paint someone praying once or twice a week, praying for only five or so minutes during those sessions. No, you would paint it of someone with impassioned devotion praying daily, constantly, with a purpose, expecting and trusting that God is going to work in the said situation.
As Elijah prayed for a drought and then again rain, and as this sweet lady I met last week prays for her children to come to know the Lord, I am convicted and reminded of the importance of prayer and the faith that must be present in this commune. May I have this kind of devotion to the Lord... To pray fervently and expectantly, humbly and confidently.
I am so thankful for this particular evening that went from trying to scare a teenage boy to meeting a beautiful woman of the Lord. This was a rare encounter that has led Aspen and I to reflect on our faithfulness to the Lord. My Thought-A-Day journal for 5-23-14 ended up not reading simple and mundane events but rather it can be read as a reminder of the sweet meeting of a new friend whose heart desires her family to know the Lord. I hope that one day that may be said of me as well.
-LauraLBrown
The other day I was joking with some friends that know I keep this journal about what could be written about my day... We decided it would say something along the mundane lines of, "I woke up. I worked. I ran. I went to bed." Nothing special or out of the ordinary. Little did I know that I would meet someone that evening that would touch my heart and teach me about devotion to the Lord.
As some of y'all know, I am not always the promptest of people when it comes to being somewhere. If something is made to sidetrack someone it will sidetrack me. Arriving somewhere on the exact time I said I would currently isn't my forte. This particular evening I was thankful for that.
As I showed up a whole forty minutes late to my running buddy Aspen's apartment, I simply just had to apologize. She didn't mind though because she was enraptured into the book she was currently reading and kept me waiting so she could finish her pages.
By the time we were both set to run my watch showed that it was just shy of 10 p.m. We ran a loop that took about 45 minutes and when we got back, for whatever reason, we stood outside for an abnormally long time enjoying the weather together.
While standing next to her truck, we heard a funny sound and thought it must be coming from an apartment... Looking around we saw a white truck in the parking lot a few cars over with the shadow of someone belting out to Spanish tunes. We got so tickled and assumed it was a teenage boy singing.
As we stood, watched, and listened I said to Aspen, "Dare me to scare him? You can stand here and watch his reaction." For whatever reason, Aspen (surprising me) agreed and thought it would be hilarious! So of course I proceeded and snuck around the backside of the truck, jumped out, and yelled.
To my surprise an older Hispanic woman opened the door and, in her broken English, told us how she was practicing a song she was planning to sing in front of her church that Sunday. She told how she gets so embarrassed to get in front of people with all eyes are on her.
As we laughed for a while at the fact that we just tried to scare this woman she began to tell us how her husband of 25 years divorced her because she was "ugly". She told us how he had moved on from her to another younger more beautiful woman. She told us how she now lives with her kids because she cannot afford to pay rent for her own home. For her, work is hard to come by and all her things had recently been stolen from someone breaking into her apartment. She explained that her three kids spend their nights drinking beer in their apartment and she doesn't want to enter in until they have fallen asleep.
As we saw, and interrupted, this lady chooses to sit out in the apartment complex's parking lot in her truck singing praises to the Lord. She told us how she spends her time praying, asking the Lord to save her children. With it already being well past 11 p.m., she explained how every night she stays in her car for hours doing these things until she sees the light click off and she then makes her way into the apartment for the night.
Both Aspen and I broken hearted and blessed by this lady's story and faith, we prayed for her, we encouraged her, and were encouraged by her. This woman's trust that the Lord will provide for her needs as well as her family's was so strong! She is a new believer, only a Christian for one year, and her devotion to the Lord is as if she has spent years in His presence.
Recently I have been studying through James with women in my church. Tonight we read through James 5 and discussed how at the end of the chapter it gives an example of an Old Testament character, Elijah, who was fervent in his prayers. James 5: 17-18 reads:
Elijah was a man with a nature like ours,
and he prayed fervently that it might not rain,
and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.
Then he prayed again,
and heaven gave rain and the earth bore its fruit.
As pointed out in our bible study, the above verse shows us how Elijah was a man with a nature just like ours! He was a man whose prayer life was powerful and effective. To paint a picture of praying fervently you wouldn't paint someone praying once or twice a week, praying for only five or so minutes during those sessions. No, you would paint it of someone with impassioned devotion praying daily, constantly, with a purpose, expecting and trusting that God is going to work in the said situation.
As Elijah prayed for a drought and then again rain, and as this sweet lady I met last week prays for her children to come to know the Lord, I am convicted and reminded of the importance of prayer and the faith that must be present in this commune. May I have this kind of devotion to the Lord... To pray fervently and expectantly, humbly and confidently.
I am so thankful for this particular evening that went from trying to scare a teenage boy to meeting a beautiful woman of the Lord. This was a rare encounter that has led Aspen and I to reflect on our faithfulness to the Lord. My Thought-A-Day journal for 5-23-14 ended up not reading simple and mundane events but rather it can be read as a reminder of the sweet meeting of a new friend whose heart desires her family to know the Lord. I hope that one day that may be said of me as well.
-LauraLBrown
Is anyone among you suffering?
Let him pray.
Is anyone cheerful?
Let him sing praise.
Is anyone among you sick?
Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him,
anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick,
and the Lord will raise him up.
And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another,
that you may be healed.
The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
James 5:13-16
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