Right about the time I finished the 30 day journey of beginning each day with surrender-based prayers, I read this blog post by Ann Voskamp, in which she challenged us to make "March the month to march around walls in our lives and pray for God to bring down everything that keeps us from Him...a 31 day march around the Jericho that's keeping you from Jesus."
And I knew the moment my eyes fell on those words that before He even gave me a day's break from the last journey, He was calling me right on to the next one.
I happened to be in my living room when I copied Ann's words into my journal and prayed silently in my heart for direction on how to pray circles around my Jerichos...and what those things might even be. That's when I glanced to my left and saw this book on the fireplace where I tossed it a few days earlier:
Mark Batterson's book In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day was so pivotal in my life that I was excited to see this new book come out and I had been waiting to finish up the book I was reading so I could start it. How fitting that I actually just finished the other book......not coincidental, I might add.
In the early pages of this book, Mark says, "The greatest moments in life are the miraculous moments when human impotence and divine omnipotence intersect - and they intersect when we draw a circle around the impossible situations in our lives and invite God to intervene."
Boy, I can think of a few of those. Can't you?
Before I began to pray circles, I began to pray about the circles. What are those things? I know what I think is important, but what does GOD think is important right now?
And here's how He brought it together for me:
When I used to work out at the IWU track, I had prayer cards. Index cards...two sets of them. On one set were 26 verses, one for every letter of the alphabet, that I've been praying over my someday-husband. I'd go through a verse during every lap, memorizing it and praying it over Mr. Missing. The second set of cards had a group of challenging marriage-related quotes I wanted to impress on my heart - also for someday.
During preparation for a house-showing, I hid those cards. Apparently I hid them well. I haven't unearthed them yet. So now that I once again have a track to run on and laps to count...I have nothing to count with!
That's when I found the Pinterest idea of prayer popsicle sticks....
And as I headed for the drawer in the kitchen where I keep the popsicle sticks, God said, "There you go, Baby Girl. Pray some circles around that track. Pick 8 things that weigh on your heart and pray circles around them. As they're answered, celebrate the victory and replace that stick with a new one."
That God. He has some good ideas! So I fished eight sticks out of the bag...
And I covered them with things that weigh on my heart...
...Like finding the right words and lessons in the final Bible study chapters I'm writing. ...Like selling this house.
...Like trusting God for money when I commute 100 miles a day and gas prices (in case you missed it) are shooting up.
...Like other things so dear to my heart I'm not even going to capture them in a picture.
And I'm going to boldly encircle those things (literally) in prayer.
No idea what God will do...or when...or how. But He will do. He Who promised is faithful.
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