A Prayer Answered…

2007 was a rough year for me. It was the beginning of what would turn into a incredibly difficult time for my family for many, many years. It was a time when I was searching for who I wanted to be in life. It was also a time when a girl, that I thought I would spend the rest of her life with me, left me. She didn’t just leave me..she left me on the 4th of July..giving “Independence Day” a whole new meaning. It was a hard time for me (speaking selfishly), but at the same time it was a time that I could not have been any closer to God. It was my first year directing a week at Lylewood Christian Camp. I remember it like it was yesterday…it was my first time to get to stay in the {Drum Roll Please}…Directors Cabin.

Now I remember my whole life looking at the directors cabin as something comparable to the Inner Room of the Temple, or the Most Holy Place. It was a place where incredible men in my life had not only stayed, but had imagined and executed amazing week long sessions of camp. Once I started counseling this cabin meant even more than the Inner Room…it was a sanctuary from the craziness of the kids in the cabin at 11:30 at night…It was just short of Heaven! However my first year in the directors cabin was anything but what I imagined it to be. In a year where my Dad would leave our family, I would leave home, and what I thought would be my future would walk out the door…the directors cabin was a very lonely place at night.

Thankfully the week before this week was teen week, in which I had the fortune of counseling with my awesome cousin, Thomas Anderson. Thomas (TA) has always been a spiritual mentor to me, and he was nothing less during teen week. I remember two things he taught me that week. First was that when you pray you always ask for God to provide you with an opportunity to talk to at least one person a day about Him (God…not Thomas). After praying that I remember my eyes opening to a world of possibilities, because that is one prayer God will always answer with abundance. The second thing Thomas taught me was this simple advise. It went something like this:

Talking to God is hard, you can easily get distracted, you can wonder if you are crazy talking to someone you can’t physically see, or any number of things that could hinder your prayer life. The solution? A prayer journal. A place where you sit down a write a prayer in the form of a love letter to God.

This may seem like simple and maybe ineffective to most, but trust me when I say it can create a powerful relationship between you and God. The Saturday before the week of camp that I directed I went to the Christian Bookstore in Clarksville and found a hard cover prayer journal. It is awesome!! It has the “Footprints in the Sand” poem inscribed on the front of the wooden cover. When I bought it, that was the coolest thing about it, but I had no idea what I was beginning.

During the incredibly lonely week in the directors cabin, that wooden covered book was such a tool for me, both then and now. Every night I laid in bed, flicked spiders of the bed, and wrote in this journal. It created an intimate relationship with me and God that I could never have imagined it doing. After camp I stopped writing. I will be honest..it is tough to take time to write a letter to God, most of the time we can’t even find time to say a prayer in our head (which we can do anywhere..how ridiculous is that).

A few days ago a was having a bad day and needed a reminder of God and what all he has done for me. While going through some boxes we have yet to unpack at our new place, I found it. The prayer journal from 4 years ago that was such a valuable tool. I started reading through all my prayers from back then. While reading it took me back, and I remember my passion in these prayers, I remember the tears that followed these prayers, and I remembered the complete breakdown happening in my life. One prayer that I prayed every night though was that he would give the girl that walked out back to me. I could see through my writing how bad I wanted that back, and how instead of trusting God with that prayer I was trying to control God through my prayer and make him feel bad for letting her leave…stupid Luke.

Here I am 4 years later, married to the most beautiful girl of my dreams, having a stronger relationship with my mom than I have ever had in my life, and starting the life I have always dreamed about.

I am so glad God didn’t answer my prayers the way I wanted him to.

Not because the girl wasn’t a great girl, but because God had a better answer to my prayer than what I could have ever imagined. The other day I was wasting my day away on Facebook and came across a status that said:

God’s 3 answers to our prayers. ♥ 
1. Yes
2. Not yet
3.I have something better in mind.

(Posted by Savannah Hudson, but after reading comments apparently it was “stolen” from Kirstie Whitakers Pinterest)

What an amazing thought. When I wrote down all those prayers I wanted an immediate answer and an immediate fix to my problems, but instead God was just saying “I have something better in mind”.

As humans we get so caught up in being independent we forget to be dependent on the one person who matters the most, and trust that he always has an answer, but we may not see it for days, weeks, months, or years.

The biggest part of prayer is trust!

We not only have to ask God for what we want or need, but we have to trust that he will make a decision that is best for us in HIS time…and that His time will be perfect in all ways.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Philippians 4:6 

You don’t have to have to have an awesome prayer journal that has wooden covers, he doesn’t care about the book, he cares about the words that are inside the book. You can grab a piece of notebook paper and pencil and write God a prayer in the form of a love letter, and be honest with him in what you want, and how you feel. You will be amazed at how He will answer you if you just show trust and patience.

-Luke Williams

P.S. Pray for him to open one door for you to talk with someone about Him today…and sit back and watch Him work!! Love Ya’ll!