The Delayed Sunrise 2/4/2023
My husband has planned all week to take me hunting with him. I warned him, I am not a morning person. I will not function to the levels of any type of expectations. I reminded him of this because he typically tries to get to his hunting spot and settle before the sun rises. We have to travel a good 45 mins before getting there. (It's what he wants. Don't ask.) Anyway, as we get about 20 mins down the road I see the horizon start to light up. I thought, "I would like to pray, 'Lord, delay the sunrise'." But, I knew I couldn't pray that prayer. Too many people are dependent on the sun. God has an order of when the sun rises and when it sets. I couldn't dare make that prayer. How selfish would that have been to ask him to adjust his order?
Then, he told me, "Every prayer holds just as much significance. Every answered prayer is not just for you, but it is connected to so many outside of you."
He did not tell me this to discourage my prayer. He told me to remind me how powerful prayer truly is. To remind me how powerful MY prayers truly are.
We discount the powers of our prayer because my life cannot be so significant that it affects a grander scale, can it?
Psalm 37:23-24: “The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand."
Our steps are ordered by God. Every move is connected to another. Our lives and interactions are significant in more ways that we can ever imagine. I believe that's what it means when he tells us, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."
Isaiah 55:8-9
We think ourselves so insignificant in God's greater plan, but God uses us in way more ways than we could possibly understand.
As I listened to S.J.R. this morning, she confirmed what God had spoken into my spirit in a part of her sermon.
"What you have left over is enough to transform not just your world, not just you, but THE WORLD. Sometimes you're afraid to call yourself a world-changer because you feel you're insignificant to the whole plot of the world, but if you knew how connected your world was to everything God wants to do in the world you would realize you do not need an international platform to be a world changer. All you have to do is have a mission that says 'Something in MY world is going to change'."
We are connected to so many outside of ourselves. Trust that God has you already perfectly placed where you're supposed to be. Also, you are exactly who he already knows you are, but he isn't done with us!
I recommend watching her sermon. The part I quoted is about 15 mins into A Bold Move. Sarah Jakes Roberts. Sorry I am posting so late, but my husband and I did not come in until late. It would not let me paste into my cell phone, so... I waited.
I love you, all.
Jacquelynn Bankston