If I had a penny for every time in my life I've heard that God answers prayers, I would be rich. If I had a penny for every time I believed it, surprisingly I would be really poor.
You would think I would have a little bit more faith that God would deliver. But so many times I have seen different results than what I prayed for. I began to doubt whether or not I was praying for the right things, or if God just didn't hear what I had to say, or simply chose not to answer them.
I'm here to inform you that God does hear every single prayer, and he even likes to answer them too.
August 28,2011 it was our Bid Day. We were running around the Kappa house meeting all the new rushees who had just accepted their bids when one of them stopped me. Konnor Lee. I had met her the previous week when we found out her mom went to high school with my dad. We immediately had common ground and began forming a relationship. On bid day her and her mom came up and thanked me for everything I had done to help her during rush. She then asked me if there were any bible studies she could become a part of during college. I got really excited she was interested in this and told her there were so many believers in Kappa so I would ask around and get back to her. At the time I was also looking for someone to meet with one-on-one. As I began to try and find her a bible study to join, God was starting to lay it on my heart that she's who I needed to meet with. Since she had asked for a group of girls I wasn't sure how she would react to just us meeting. I messaged her and she said she would love to start something. Prayer #1 answered. Thank you God.
We have met almost every week since that day. I quickly found out she was not as far into her faith as I assumed. In fact, she hadn't even started the journey. I was trying to explain to her what discipleship was and how Jesus had disciples and we made goals (scripture memory, prayer life, evangelism, and quiet time) for the semester. Then I realized she didn't have an accurate depiction of Jesus due to her lack of knowledge of the gospel. When I realized this my lesson plans quickly changed and we started from square one. I explained the gospel to her in more ways than I thought were possible. Still after hearing this amazing news, she seemed hesitant to ask Jesus into her heart. She knew she wanted to be a believer, and she wanted to be saved, but didn't understand how we could trust in someone we had never met. I honestly didn't know what to do at this point. I had told her as much truth as I knew to tell. I spent 9 weeks going through this, step by step, breaking everything down so she could understand it. I tried to make it simple and easy. But no matter what I said, she just wasn't there yet. I quickly realized I needed to do less planning, and more praying. My part of speaking truth to her was done. Now it was time to sit back and wait on the Holy Spirit to intercede and move her heart.
November 29, 2011 she finally prayed and asked Christ to come into her heart. You have NO idea how in.cred.ible this is! Y'all we have one more sister in Christ, one more person to spend eternity with, one more person to love God and one more person to go share His love to the world. I am stinkin pumped and have no words to express the deep joy in my heart.
I never once gave up on her, but I will say I gave up on the power of prayer. I knew she would come to know Christ eventually, I just wasn't sure if it would be while I was meeting with her. I kept thinking if all I am doing is planting a seed that someone else comes and sows later in her life, then I am okay with that. And I think I started to use that as an excuse of why nothing had happened. I had been praying for Konnor, but not as fervently as I should have been. As soon as I gave up my rights to lead her and let God take care of moving her heart, a miracle happened. You see God wants people to come to know Him. But he also wants us to be humble in leading them to Him. I have never seen God answer my prayers like this when I simply submitted it all to Him. Our God is huge. Unfortunately, I sometimes forget just how big He is. I forgot that he cares about my needs, my wants, and my worries. I became numb to the fact that He is my biggest fan and wants to answer every prayer I have.
Our God loves when we communicate with Him. And for a girl who LOVES to talk, sometimes I get so caught up in conversations with other people, that I forget to go straight to Him. I kept seeking advice from my friends and mentor when I should have gone to God a lot sooner than I did. He has taught me so much through submission of this area in my life. And as much as I love to lead, it's completely worth it to give up my rights as a leader. I want to humbly follow Him. Konnor wasn't the only one this past fall who received an amazing gift. I learned more than I would have had I not been around her. That's what discipleship is all about. The teacher becoming the student, and vice versa.
The end of 2011 left me with the best present I could have asked for. My theme for 2012 is to do less planning, and more praying. Now I can't wait to see what God has waiting for me this year.
Philippians 4:6 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."
Happy New Year!
Morgs
