Don't be afraid, for I am with you. Don't be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand. Isaiah 41:10 (NLT)
This morning I was reading about having children join us in prayer. It hit me that there is rarely anything regarding prayer mentioned in children's Sunday School literature. Sure, they tell us to pray with them and we do, but as far as teaching them what prayer is and is all about, I could probably count on one hand the number of times it has been made a prominent part of the actual curriculum over all my years of teaching. I hadn't really thought about this before, so I was rather startled. No wonder children become adults that flounder in this area! I decided that it might be an exciting learning experience to do a promise a week with my kindergarten class and pray with them, using the "promise of the week" as a guide. I went online to the 365 promises of God blog and wrote down the first promise to use this coming Sunday. The verse above was first on the list. I then knelt down to pray.
It is amazing in a rather amusing way how quickly we can be tested when we begin to pray over something like this. I got out a few sentences and the house phone rang. My daughter was on the line with the news that our oldest granddaughter was throwing up and, if possible, would be coming to stay with me for the day. My immediate reaction was, "Ugh! Throwing up?! It's the stuff (church family name) has been going through! I don't want to get sick!" I didn't actually think these exact thoughts, but they are the instant messaging that went through my body. But then the promise I had just written down superseded the other thoughts and I realized that this was an opportunity God had laid in my lap to help me "practice what I wanted to preach" so to speak.
When our granddaughter arrived I was blessed with the joy of praying for her using God's word as the theme of the prayer. I prayed aloud, silently asking God to use this time of praying for her as a learning experience for her, so she could know how to pray for her children when/if she becomes a mother when grown.
Some might call this coincidental, but we know better. If I hadn't been studying this particular promise at that particular time, I most probably would have become discouraged over having to take care of a sick child when trying to care for a busy four year old and doing his preschool agenda with him. However, God knew exactly what I would need to prepare me for the day and provided it. I had to choose to receive it; could have rejected it the moment the call came, but praise God, He gave me the sense to receive it. I pray He reminds me of it over and over and over again until I no longer need reminding, as it will have become such a deep-rooted part of my life that it can no longer be extracted.
Father, You have told us not to be afraid or discouraged, because You are with us and are our God. As if that weren't enough right there, You went on to let us know You wouldn't just be standing there next to us watching, but You would give us the strength we needed and hold us up with, not simply Your hand, but Your victorious right hand. Who sits at Your right hand? Jesus!! Our faith in Him makes us victorious, no matter how strenuous, no matter how frustrating, no matter how humiliating or wearisome our tasks may be. You have already won the war, we just have to put up with the skirmishes, but we never have to go it alone. Thank You for always being there and always preparing the way for us by going before us into battle. May we be forever thankful!!
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