Day 1 and beginning of 2
Heads up, dear readers.
Today will be a day of many entries.
I'm not exactly sure where to start.
I suppose I will start with the beginning... always a good starting point.
Friday I left work at 11:30am and headed to Cleveland. Met with the girls at Lee and followed the caravan to Memphis. (A total of 10.5 hours on the road... blah)
On my way to Memphis, GB called my cell phone to tell me how crazy things were at work.
My response, "I'm so sorry. But I really do appreciate you letting me off today."
Him - "Well, that's what I was going to say. Enjoy your LAST Friday off."
Me - "I will, and thank you again."
Him - "You better, because it's your LAST one."
*garsh*
I am totally convinced that I am not supposed to stay here. But I do have to be careful not to let the roots of bitterness sink in here. I don't want him to be my pitfall.
Anyways... we got there and surprised C. She cried, and then said she knew I was coming. Hehe... apparently I gave it away in my diary at some point.
Hm.
It was definitely the most interesting retreat I've had. I knew maybe 6-7 out of 22 girls. Some of them I had met once before, but that was it. So in the beginning I felt a little bit like it was a mistake that I had come. I was exhausted by the end of that first day. I was frustrated that my boss and made that phone call. I was very hormonal and emotional.
But, somehow, I ended up with a bed and bath all to myself, even though all 22 girls were staying in one house. I know this is selfish, but I am SO glad that's how it worked out.
At the end of that first day, I went into my room, and read a letter. AB and some of the SL girls had written all of us letters from Jesus. I read it and somehow ended up on the floor of that bedroom, on my face, crying to Jesus. It was a great time of ministry... and of preparation for the rest of the weekend.
So then day 2 came. We had a small service in the morning. The main things I remember from the morning teaching is this. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Substance. Evidence. These are tangible, real things that represent what we are believing for. I thought that was cool. Though I didn't realize how cool until later.
She also talked about how to pray. She said, "Do you see anything wrong with this prayer?...'Lord, I have this need. I know you can handle it. Here is everything I need you to do. I'll trust you with it. Amen.'"
I didn't think there was anything wrong with it. That's how I pray about situations. Heck, I thought that was using faith.
But she said otherwise. You see our God is a God of increase and supply. So who do you think is the master of decrease and want? Satan, right? So if God was moved every time we had a need... Satan (who produced the need) will be continually dictating God's actions.
And that's just not cool with my God.
Instead, you should pray His word. Remind the Lord (and mainly yourself, since it's not exactly like the Lord has forgotten)about what He has promised because He HAS to back his Word. Otherwise, he would be a liar.
And my God is no liar.
So I learned how to pray for things. And the Lord began to whisper in my ear about a new house.