Seeking His Face

This morning, during my quiet time (which if I'm honest is the first time in many days that I've done this!), I prayed that God would speak to me about Maggie by giving me specific Scripture verses to cling to. She's been having some pretty tough weeks. God immediately answered my prayer. Here is what He spoke to me:

I was reading Psalm 105 and verse 4 jumped out at me:

"Look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always." I prayed, "Lord this is what you would have me do--to rely on your strength to be Jesus to Maggie--to seek Your face when she is struggling. Lord, remind me to turn to you in the midst of the battle." "Seek His face" means prayer. God was reminding me that first and foremost with Maggie I need to be in prayer. No parenting technique will be effective without prayer. In addition, nothing is as powerful as prayer to heal her.

Psalm 105:5 says, "Remember the wonders He has done . . ." I was reminded to remember God's power, remember the miracles Jesus did, and that if He can heal the blind and lame, feed 5,000, and raise a man from the dead, He CAN heal Maggie. I am to recall to memory all that He has done through history, as well as in my own life, to remind me that He is able to heal. I am to look back and remember in order to have hope that God is going to work all things for His glory!

I then read Psalm 106:13, "But they soon forgot what He had done and did not wait for His counsel." I prayed, "Lord, let me wait for your counsel instead of turning to the world." God is on our side; He is with us in this trial. His Word has all of the answers for every situation. We need to just wait for His counsel and He will give wisdom to all who ask for it.

My next prayer was one of affirmation:

Lord, I will seek You. I will call out for wisdom, I will turn to love to cast out fear. I will ask you what the most loving thing to do is in every situation. I will wait on you. I will ask for forgiveness when I mess up. I will humble myself. I will address sin and confront the lies of the enemy and declare truth over Maggie. I will sing your praise over her. I will obey you, God. I will seek your counsel, for you are our counselor. I will not entertain negative thoughts. I will persevere in this trial because I believe in your power.

Psalm 106:24-25 says, "Then they despised the pleasant land; they did not believe His promise. They grumbled in their tents and did not obey the Lord."

I prayed: "God, maybe you do not work in situations when we 1) are not believing your promises to us and 2) we are grumbling in our "tents". We need to believe God's promises, trusting in His sovereign plan for our lives, and not grumble and complain, but to be thankful even in the midst of trials and even FOR the trials!

So, this is what God taught me in my quiet time--very simply: to continue to seek Him first through prayer, to remember what He has done in the past to know what He can and will do in Maggie's life, to not complain and to not be yoked with the world in this. We are to seek godly advice from Christians (as we have been doing) and go to His Word. I am reassured me that He is with us, that He is in control, that He sovereignly ordained this trial, and that I am not alone, I can go to Him when I am weak and He will be my strength. All praise, honor and glory to Him. May I be obedient to His call in my life to parent Maggie and may I be faithful as His humble servant.