Remembering

"And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or no." ~ Deuteronomy 8:2

Do you ever have those moments in a day where you have time to be still and just ponder? I had one of those moments today.

I was organizing some papers in my office and heard someone on the television mention an accordion. Now, that may be a mundane word for you but for me not so much. It took me back to a few months ago, sitting in the living room of a friend's house, eating some pizza and talking with a missionary to Africa. My pastor had asked the missionary if there were any specific needs he had and that is when he mentioned that he had been asked to get an accordion. Well, it happened to be that the family whose living room we were all in actually had an accordion. It was brought up from downstairs and it left that night, beginning it's journey to Mozambique.

God had worked the whole situation out. First, it wasn't even planned to be at this particular house. It was a last minute change. Secondly, God had to put it on my Pastor's heart to ask the question of what needs this missionary had. Thirdly, the missionary had to be willing to mention it. Fourthly, the family who had the accordion had to be willing to give it. All these worked out - just as God knew they would. Man can not do that!

That was the first thing that came to my remembrance today and it led me to continue to think upon some of the amazing things God had orchestrated in the recent past. The second thing that came to my mind was how God had been so faithful at answering prayer. He always is but there was one particular prayer (or plea, rather) that not only did He answer it, but He allowed me and others to be aware of when and how our prayer was answered.

It was the summer of 2009 and some great friends of mine had a newborn baby boy who had some major heart troubles since birth. He was in the Mayo Clinic recovering from a recent heart surgery and this day he was not doing well. They were taking him off of his pain medications and he was going threw some really bad withdrawals. All day his family and friends of the family were reaching out and pleading for people to pray for God to give him comfort from these withdrawals. He was only a few months old and it was incredibly hard for his parents to see their son go through such pain.

That evening a small group of us gathered for a special prayer meeting for this little fighter. We met together and took turns praying. We left it up to God to handle the situation and boy, did He ever come through!

The next morning as I was getting ready to leave for work I realized I had a voicemail from the baby's mom. She had heard about our little prayer meeting the night before and had called to say thank you. She also mentioned that after struggling all day, her son had finally calmed down that night - right around 7 or 8 o'clock...that was the exact time that we were praying!

God didn't have to have her call and mention that, but she did call and it was a memorable answer to prayer for not only me but many others who had prayed as well.

I still get goosebumps and tears well up in my eyes just as I type this and think about that moment! I dropped to my knees and praised God for answering our prayer, taking care of little Charlie and for allowing me to see Him work.

Remembering moments like this are needful for me. They are an encouragement to know that God does always answer prayer and I can pray to Him for anything and about everything. Take a moment today or this week and reflect and remember some of the moments in your life where God has shown Himself strong. It will be an encouragement to you. God will always take care of you. He is to be praised for the good and for the bad because it is all part of His will for you and He wants nothing but the best for you.