Faithful

Most days, God reminds me of His faithfulness by scattering small blessings throughout my day. They are things that it is easy to miss, but which I do usually notice and which bring me joy as reminders of His presence and love in my life.

But there are some days when Jesus knows that I will be too frantically busy and harried to notice these small things. So He crashes down large, impossible-to-miss blessings into my day again and again and again so that I will have no choice but to remember His grace and faithfulness.

Wednesday was a day like that.

It should have been miserable. I knew that I would leave my dorm at 7:30 am and not get back until after 5 pm, miss lunch, and have to be mentally alert the entire time. In addition, I was worried about a prompt for a paper due on Monday that I didn't understand, as well as my first practice debate (I just joined debate team) on Thursday. A bit of context paper-wise: I usually have the rough draft of a paper finished a week before it is due. And there I was on Wednesday still not sure what I would write about. And it was rainy and cold.

On Wednesday morning, I told God: "I cannot do everything that I have to do today. It is absolutely impossible. I am stressed and worried and weak. Lord, I do not like to be weak, but that is part of my nature as a human being. I can do nothing without You. Help me acknowledge that freely before You and before everyone who will listen to my story. I am so needy, Lord. Fill me with Your Sprit. Empower me by Your awesome might. Guide me with Your Presence. Let Your power be made perfectly manifest in my weakness, so that when You enable me to do the impossible today I will look back and laugh with joy at Your faithfulness and glorify Your name."

And you know what? He answered my prayer abundantly beyond what I could ever have imagined. Not only did He allow me to accomplish everything, but He also piled on blessing upon blessing over and above my needs for that day.

In Physics class, He gave me a verse. I looked it up later - it's Isaiah 30:15. "In repentance and rest is your salvation; in quietness and trust is your strength." Thank You, Lord. I needed that.

I felt almost from the beginning of the day that I was covered in prayer - even more than usual. I knew that my family and a few of my friends here were praying for me. I later found out that someone actually fasted for me all day. That was incredibly humbling to realize. It is an amazing thing to be so completely wrapped in prayer, and it is also incredible to see God working to answer those prayers.

A friend sent me this verse from Philippians 4: "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

A line in a song in chapel expressed the desire of my heart: "Teach us to love as You have loved us."

My German professor didn't assign homework for Friday.

I was able to turn in physics homework two days early.

I talked to my lit professor about my idea for the paper coming up and she said I was on the right track.

I actually had energy to do homework after my crazily busy day.

I was constantly aware of the faithful Presence of the Lord - much more so than usual.

I went on a run in the wind and the sunshine and the cool fall weather.

And, to top it all off, I was not only abundantly blessed by the people around me and by the Lord Himself, but He also allowed me to bless others, which is one of the things that brings me the greatest joy. I was studying in the library that evening when a freshman from my floor came to me in tears, completely overwhelmed by the research she needed to do for a public speaking project. I was able to comfort her, talk her through it, remind her that all of us go through this at some point here (I had broken down in tears on Tuesday night), and encourage her to stop for the night (she had been working futilely for three hours), get some sleep, and start fresh the next day. I felt so blessed that God had placed me in the right place at the right time to minister to her.

At the end of the day, I collapsed in my room with a hot mug of tea and the company of several of my friends. As I told them about my day, I laughed with joy and amazement at the faithfulness of God to not only meet my minimum needs, but pour out more blessings on me that I could have asked for or imagined.

My God is faithful to answer prayer, to walk with His children, and to delight in pouring out grace upon grace in their lives. I knew that before this Wednesday, but that day was an incredible reminder to me of what that looks like in my own life.