Friday Encouragement

I've been up since five this morning, though I did dose off again between six and seven.  From about seven o'clock to now, I've been praying off and on about a situation in my life that feels a little overwhelming, or at least it did until about thirty minutes ago.  And here is the point for this blog post, and it's very short and sweet.  God hears.  He hears every prayer, every cry, every sigh of turmoil and exhaustion.

Don't give up on praying.  One of the gazillion things that amazes me about God is that even when we don't know what or how to pray, Jesus is there interceding on our behalf.  So when I'm too tired to even think of words, I imagine that, and know that when I cry out to Jesus, He takes that as an SOS from me, and He intercedes for me. 

I love this image that I just saw on Google images.

The word of God tells us not to worry, but to pray.  (Philippians 4:6)

And as proof that He heard my cry this morning, He led me to a passage that I had just heard someone else mention.

I was flipping through the topical index in the back of my bible, and I saw the word blasphemy, so I wanted to read what the bible had to say about what it was, and I also looked it up on my phone so that I would know the definition.  My pastor preached a sermon a few years ago about blasphemy being the unpardonable sin, and I had several ideas of what it actually is, so that's why I did all this today.  I read here in Matthew 12, and then in the passage right below it, I read about a topic I've talked about several times this week: good fruit from a good tree, or bad fruit from a bad tree.  I had talked about this with a friend earlier in the week, and about the passage that says the world will know who we are according to the fruit we produce (the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control).  Then I read a verse that literally jumped off the page to me.

It's the second part of verse 34 out of Matthew 12: "For the mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart."

This doesn't always happen when I pray, friends, but today, the Lord knew that I needed comfort and a little bit of reassurance, and He led me right to this passage.  He proved to me for about the millionth time that He hears me and He knows what is going on.  And He cares!  That's the most beautiful part about it all: He cares about us and He cares about what we go through. 

So whether you're facing an issue with someone, a medical scare, a family problem, or something else: take comfort in the fact that He knows your need, He hears you, He sees you, and He loves you.  He wants you to cast your cares upon Him, because He cares.  That is from 1 Peter 5:7, and it's just one of the many verses that I cling to when I need comforting or reassuring.  Because this world is rough, y'all, and it's never easy navigating our way through all the muck.  I literally cannot imagine trying to live without Jesus.  He is the only hope that we have in this world.  Do you know Him?  I would love to talk more about Him if you want to know more. 

I pray you leave this blog post encouraged today.

Love to all.