My God and I

I am doing a Bible study at church called Live a Praying Life by Jennifer Kennedy Dean. For someone who grew up in the church, there is a lot that I don't know about prayer. So far this has been an excellent study!

One thing that stood out to me a couple of weeks ago is that God is a "Yes" God. 2 Cor. 1:18-20 says But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not "Yes" and "No." For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by me and Silas and Timothy, was not "Yes" and "No," but in him it has always been "Yes." For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God.

What stuck out to me about these verses is that it says God is not a God of 'yes' and 'no' but he is a 'Yes' God. I heard somewhere that God answers our prayers with a yes, no or wait. This didn't necessarily fit with what I knew of God. God always answers our prayers with a "yes!" - but it is His yes, not our yes. God obviously doesn't always answer our prayers the way we want, instead He always answers them in the best possible way - in a way that is more than we could ever imagine! Ephesians 3:20-21 says, "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."

My facilitator took it a little further and said that, knowing that we need bread, God isn't going to give us a stone. Sometimes God's answer to a prayer may seem like a stone, but later on we may (or may not) realize that God was giving us bread.

A friend in my study led worship yesterday and she sang a song called, "My God and I." She said that it is an old hymn that she rewrote the music for and added a new chorus. The song is beautiful. Click here and then scroll down just a little until you see the play, stop, etc. with a song list underneath (this is all on the left hand side). Scroll down through the list of songs and click on "My God and I" and listen to the beautiful words. I love that it gives the picture that God is SO powerful that He watches over the whole world and yet He cares about me and my "little" life. AMAZING!

(And while you are on Kiersten's website, check out some of the other songs!!)