I have shared this with some of you but wanted to post it on our blog to highlight God's awesome-ness!
Background information:
On Saturday mornings I've been gathering with a group of girls to seek the Lord. We spend time praising Him together, talking about how amazing He is, thanking Him for things, admiring His character and singing. Then we separate and have quiet time to confess things to Him and listen to Him. And then we come back together and share what verses we were reading, what understanding we gained, what we heard Him say. Countless times, some of us will have read and pondered the SAME VERSES or the SAME THEMES during our quiet time alone with Him. It's so encouraging to hear that He is working out the same issues in lots of us at once!
OK here's the story:
When I was in college (about 14 years ago!), I remember having a really really down time. I was despairing over something (don't remember now what it was) and I was crying in my dorm room. I remember thinking "Nehemiah". I was like...what in the world is nehemiah? a book in the bible? a character in the bible?? I'm telling the truth, I wasn't even sure if Nehemiah was a biblical thing. But I grabbed my bible and journal, drove to a deserted road in the dark, found Nehemiah and read and cried. God spoke to me in a way that I REALLY needed.
In the past 1-2 weeks, I've been reminded of Nehemiah. I had been thinking that I really ought to read it again and see if there is anything important in there for me to learn now. I didn't take the time to sit and read it until our girl time on Saturday. I opened my bible and wrote the entire first prayer in my bible. I prayed as I went along and asked God to reveal important aspects to me. I was struck by the importance of confession - confessing for ourselves, confessing for our children, confessing for our nation and our world.
On Sunday, I sat down in church and worshiped God. Then our pastor stood on the stage and announced, "open your bible to the book of Nehemiah". I just about fell out of my seat!! He preached from Nehemiah chapter 1 and read the entire first prayer that I had written in my journal. He again highlighted the importance of prayer and confession.
I do not believe this was a coincidence. I believe that the message in Nehemiah is a very important one right now - I would not be at all surprised if others had been drawn to the book recently too! I also believe that this experience was a gift from God to me :) I've sought Him but often wondered if I'm really perceiving his prompting correctly or if I'm just "making things up". This experience made me giddy because I think it says that, at least in that moment, I was in tune with the Lord's heart and what He's doing in His people right now.
Never give up seeking Him. He is amazing and so worth knowing! He wants to be known by us and to have a relationship with Him. If your eyes are open and you're talking with Him frequently, He will make Himself known to you. I think He reveals Himself in lots of ways every day and we just miss it because we're not looking.
Let's open our eyes, "wake up from our slumber" and experience relationship with HIM!
Jen
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