My husband and I have been praying extra for our oldest daughter, Liz. She’s disconnected– from God, from us, and we miss her, even though we see her almost every week. We feel rejected as she rejects God, and yet we cannot respond to our hurt and turn her away. She neeeds to know how much she is loved, by God and by us.
Several weeks ago I had a dream about all of this, and the dream revelaed a clear focus for my prayers for Liz. A week later I had a chance to catch up with a friend at a Christmas party. As she poured out her heart, I realized we share a similiar struggle, how to hope in the face of regularly reinforced discouragement. How do you believe in faith when what stirs in your heart is dislike?
As we talked, I shared my dream, and the prayer direction God has provided, and my friend wanted to find a quiet spot and pray right then for Liz, while we were together. (I love friends like that!) We prayed, for wisdom, for Liz to really know God’s love, and for the enemy’s grip to be dissolved. My friend asked for God to do something “right away, right away, let an answer be seen right away.”
I have to confess I wanted to believe even as I thought, ”No, it won’t be right away, I can’t imagine it changing right away.”
The next night my daughter walked through the door and told me she was home for good. She was moving back in beause she needs accountability in her life. I kept thinking I missed something, that she couldn’t really be making this decision, it was so uncharacteristic.
God answers prayer, and yes, Sue, he answered your “right away” prayer in spite of my unbelief.
There’s still a lot to pray about. It’s not all neat and tidy. It is better. And I have more courage to pray for the things I really desire, for Liz, for myself, and yes, right away!
