But if He does not....

The past few months have been a whirlwind of activity around the Turner house. New kids learning more and more English....hearing the words, "probably" and "actually" come out of their mouths is music to my ears. A five year old who hasn't pitched a fit in several weeks AND walked away from the table after only one serving for the first time...can I get a HALLELUJAH!!!! This is huge considering he eats like a grown man training for the World's Strongest Man competition. My precious mother-in-law's passing into eternity....which leads to 7 people grieving 7 different ways...... School with 5 kids ranging from pre-calculus and world geography to Colors, Numbers and Rhyming Words. Ah, it's our life, and I cherish it! It's crazy...but it's ours...well, not really....

That's just it...it's NOT our lives...it's His...and for His glory alone! Which brings me to the reason I am writing... this world is truly not our home. So, let's keep our minds set on eternity and His glory. Let's pray without ceasing..interceding for others constantly. God has prompted me so many times lately to pray for people that I barely know and others that I know well. But, how do we pray?

I find myself praying a lot....which means I don't hear much of what's going on around me at times. Truly, I'm not ignoring my children or you when you are talking, but if I don't stop and pray immediately, I'll forget! My mind...it is not working properly in the memory area...so I have to obey immediately.

We pray for His glory to be known among the nations. We pray for God to heal...whether on this earth or in eternity. We pray for His glory to be shown in and through situations. We pray for Him to speed up adoption processes or to slow them down for His name's sake. We pray for His will to be done...whether it fits our plan or not. We pray that God will act in such a way that He and He alone gets all the glory. We pray not to manipulate or plan or control...we pray that He controls because He is Sovereign. We pray that He will give us the strength to glorify and praise in the midst of pain and anguish.

My favorite chapter in the Bible is Daniel 3. You know the story. Three guys....three disobedient men...refusing to bow...to an earthly king. The king commands them to bow..and they refuse again. Then, they speak with words only God could orchestrate. "King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand." I LOVE the confidence they have in God alone. They boast in His great power and majesty. They proclaim His goodness and strength!

But, here's the BEST part! They KNOW what God can do, but they do NOT know what He WILL do. So they say, "But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” YES!!!! YES!!!! YES!!! IF HE DOES NOT, we will praise Him! We will praise in the waiting, in the pain, in the grief, in the longing, in the valley, in the storm. We will praise our God despite the situations and circumstances around us. We will praise our God!

Today, let us praise God for provision, for family, for friends, for all the "good" things...but let us purposefully choose to praise Him for the things that we don't like, don't understand and don't want....because we KNOW that it is for His great glory....