A Month of Thanks: Day 2

Psalm 136:1 "Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His love endures forever."

Day 2 of our month of thanks. Here are two more things in my life for which I give thanks.

1. Prayer: I love the fact that I can turn to God at all times, that He hears me, and that He cares for me. Psalm 145:18 "The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth." I love that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us when we don't know what to pray (like sitting at your husband's bedside after he came out of brain surgery and not knowing what the future holds). Romans 8:26 "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express." Another way I love prayer is when you gather with other believers and pray. Every Saturday morning we get up early and meet with other believers to read through scripture and pray. Sometimes in my flesh I want to just ignore the alarm and just lay in bed and be lazy. I'm so glad that we go anyway. I leave that meeting refreshed and ready to face the day with my mind focused on what is important. The prayers of others has sustained me in unexplainable ways during Wayne's battle with brain cancer. There were times that I was so exhausted from being at the hospital all day, and yet I could feel the prayers of others holding me up. One of my favorite memories of the past few months was when a group of believers met at our house and prayed over Wayne and our family the night before his surgery. It was powerful and meant the world to us. It was amazing to have not only people from our church, but people from other churches, homeschool groups, mountain biking friends, etc. Prayer is so important and yet it is something so many of us skip or don't give much attention to in our lives (myself included). If we think about how powerful prayer is, we wouldn't skimp on it. We have direct access to the God of the universe who spoke and created the world, who holds the heavens in the span of His hand...the list goes on...and He wants us to come to Him and pour out of hearts. He may not always answer the way we want, but He always hears us, does what is best for us, and brings Himself the most glory.

2. Scripture: God's Word is truly the sustaining power in life. The Holy Spirit brought so many scriptures to my mind during Wayne's time in the hospital. Verses that I had memorized years ago came to my mind. They were powerful and exactly what I needed to hear in those moments. God has revealed and taught me so much about His character through the Word. God's Word is how we stand in the face of trials of life, it's how we fight temptation in this world, it's how we grow in our knowledge of who God is in our lives, etc! I find passages like John 17 so comforting...Jesus actually prayed for us while He was still here on earth. You know what His prayer was? That we would know God!! The Psalms are full of encouragement for those difficult times in your life. I love the way David pours out his heart to God. There are some Psalms that feel like David is speaking for me as he is talking to God. 

Prayer and scripture should be vital parts of our lives. It is my prayer that God continues to develop me and help me in this area. It is my desire to lean on Him and learn from Him so that I can grow and further glorify God with my life!

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Wayne isn't feeling so good today. Now that he has officially taken four days of chemo, the effects of it are showing up. It doesn't help that yesterday he ate Raisin Bran and he broke out in a rash. They changed the flakes and something in them left him itching all night. Thankfully we had some children's benadryl in the house, so we gave him some this morning so he could rest comfortably. Please keep praying for him. Tonight is his last dose, but it will take about 2-3 days before he starts feeling better. Hopefully, like the other rounds, he'll be feeling normal by Sunday.