My daughter-in-law and I had texted back and forth several times and I had naturally prayed for them with a mother's heart. About 10 PM I got a text that basically read, "The worst of the storm is over, still enduring 80 to 90 mph winds. We're okay. Stevie is missing." Stevie is the family cat.
Well, please don't hate me but I am really not a "cat person." But because I love my grandchildren so and because I know how much they love that cat, I prayed for Stevie--that he would find a safe place to hide and make it back home after the storm was over.
This morning as I was typing out my prayer to God on the "Pray With Me" section of this blog, I received a text--right after I had typed the part about "Thank you for taking care of my Tulsa kids and their property last night" and really was not thinking of Stevie included in their property--I received a little ding and it was a text that said, "Stevie's home."
I immediately started shedding some tears and then as I realized Stevie came home right as I was typing the praise about the property being protected, I started to sob--because Stevie was home?? Well partly but mostly because there are some serious situations for which I am praying in my family right now and I felt like it was a validation of the scripture about the "birds of the air."
If God cares so much about the birds of the air, that He knows when one sparrow falls, how much more does He know and care about us?! If he cared so much as to bring Stevie home from that terrible storm, how much more does He care about all the other storms in our family--storms for which I was crying out to Him this morning after I read the scripture from 1 Samuel which says:
He (Samuel) cried out to the LORD on Israel’s behalf, and the LORD answered him. 1 Samuel 7:9b
Israel was in trouble and Samuel cried out to God and the Lord answered him.
Dear friend, there will always be storms. There will always be times when lives and property are taken that seem to make no sense to us. But I do believe that God wants us to cry out to Him in faith for the salvation and protection of our families. And when I see His hand at work, I want to be the first to declare it.
I also want to cry out to Him before the storms approach, before there is any indication of an unsettled atmosphere.
If there are winds from the enemy coming at you or your family today, I pray that you will take this simple verse from 1 Samuel and let it bring encouragement to your heart today that our prayers are not in vain. Let us cry out to God as Samuel did and expect Him to hear and answer our prayers.
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