Tuesday, April 8, 2008

God's Promises

At this moment in our adoption, all I can do is pray. Pray, pray, pray. And what do you know, my small women's group has been doing a book study on how to pray. What perfect timing. Praise God.

In a time with so much uncertainty, all I can do is turn to my Heavenly Father for support, encouragement, and comfort. And I have seeked Him out through His word more times in these past two weeks than I have probably done in the last year. And I am more at peace with our adoption right now because I know His promises.

In my small group I have been learning what it means to abide in God. It means to spend time with him, quality time, and by abiding in Him, I will learn what it is that He wants for my life. I have been using my concordance to find verses that declare God's promises for our lives and I have been so encouraged by His love for me that I have faith that he will answer my prayers.

I want to share with you these amazing verses that I have turned to every morning for the past two weeks. And the constant reminder of His word has driven out the doubt and the nonsense that has caused me to worry and fear that our child may never come home.

Two weeks ago I was led to this verse when I first really started to have doubts.
Psalms 6:9 says, "The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayer."
When I read and claimed it, I was comforted to know that God not only hears my prayers about Dennis, our dossier, our appointment...... but He also accepts my prayers. So my prayers for little Dennis to come home have been heard.

I was further encouraged to find this verse from Lamentations 3:25 "The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him; to the one who seeks Him." And not only am I a seeker, but I am a hopeful seeker who I know God is good too. Though I already knew this, I found great comfort in being able to find this verse that helps remind me of it day in and day out.

What is so awesome about God is that He speaks to people differently, through different verses, and what verses He may lead me to today may be different than where He leads you. I am certain that you will find comfort in the verses that He leads you to. Though this may seem like a strange verse to find comfort in, it brings me confirmation that when I believe that God can do
something, He will do it. Matthew 9:27 -30 says, "As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, "Have mercy on us, Son of David!" When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him and he asked them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" "Yes, Lord," they replied. Then he touched their eyes and said, "According to your faith will it be done to you," and their sight was restored."

Hallelujah! How comforting is that? I keep reading this verse over and over. If these guys believed that He could heal their blindness so that they can see, I can surely believe that God can get our dossier submitted soon.

I was lead to another powerful verse that spoke straight to me as I tried to find verses about God's answer to prayer. I was lead to verse Mark 11:22- 24. "Have faith in God," Jesus answered. "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."

This is His promise. Did you hear me? This is God's promises to us. How can I doubt, how can I not have faith? If God can move mountains, how can I not trust that he can move a couple of papers from one person's hands to another?

Today I found this verse. I think it is appropriate that I end with it.

Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him , so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Please join me in prayer this week for adoptions all over the world.

16 comments:

Debora Hoffmann said...

Christine, I have tears in my eyes. God's promises are so precious, and we need the reminder of them. I am sure I'll come back to this post of yours to remind myself of how faithful God is and how much He loves His children. I'll pray for His kids the world over who need families.

Garth and I came across these verses last week, which I would like to share with you:

O LORD, You have heard the desire of the humble; You will strengthen their heart, You will incline Your ear to vindicate the orphan and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth will no longer cause terror. (Psalm 10:17-18)

Jeri said...

Christine,

When looking at the photo of Denis, I was struck by how much he resembles my friend's son Spencer. I'm wondering, would having a photo of Spencer be a possible help for the plastic surgeon? Just wondering.

junglemama said...

Debbie, thank you for this verse. It is amazing.

Jeri, I'll let you know if it would be of help. Thanks for offering.

junglemama said...

Debbie, I looked in my NIV and I like your translation much better. Which bible did you get it out of?

Debora Hoffmann said...

It's from the New American Standard. You can look it up on www.biblegateway.com in the New American Standard version, if you like. I do a lot of searches using Bible Gateway.

Matt and Carla Morgan said...

Absolutely! Count me in for prayers re: adoption across the globe.

cm

Unknown said...

Christine thank you for sharing and for reminding us to have faith and be fervent in our prayers.
Lea

Chelley said...

prayers coming!!!

With faith comes hope....

Laurel said...

Christine:
Thanks for sharing these verses and your thoughts. I needed to read that today!!! :-)
Laurel

Anonymous said...

Christine, are you sure that information about Dennis is for international adoption? Do you have information about his status? I live on Ukraine, I know the bureaucratic feature of our system. I want, that all turned out well for you, but I worry about obstacles. Write me irinaai@rambler.ru, if you will count up necessary my help.

Ashley said...

This is exactly where I am at the moment. I believe Satan is getting mad and he is throwing all of these stones our way. But, we must believe that God will make it happen! Keep reading those verses and remembering God's promises to us. We are answering God's call to care for orphans so He WILL DO THIS! Even when things look impossible, remember ABSOLUTELY NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD! I love you, my dear friend and I am praying with you for children all over this world.

amyl4 said...

Thank you Christine,
I really needed to read these scriptures today.
Amy
RR

Connie said...

Ok sis, you know I am not a Christian, so obviously I will not quote Bible verse back at you, :-) Then what should I say?

I agree with the Muslims when they say, there is no God but God. Therefore, I know that while we may follow different paths, the Divinity that we see, is one and the same. The divergent details of our different ways of knowing God is the mere work of human interpretation. These details are not important when it comes to the truth of the faith we hold in our hearts.

I just say this because, while we do follow different paths, I am still sincere when I say that I love, and hold dear, the verses you have shared here.

Know also that Dennis, as well as you and the rest of the family, are in my prayers constantly. The love, the positivity, the faith in God - it will all come together as it should. You have my blessings, prayers, and love.

Kathy and Matt said...

Christine,
thank you for sharing the passages that have touched you recently. Reading God's word is so powerful and it reinforces his love for us.

Praying with you!

Leslie said...

Wanted to let you know I was having a really rough day yesterday and God encouraged me when I read the verses in this post. Thanks for pointing me back to him, Christine.

Stefanie and Bill said...

Christine, Thinking of you today as you wait patietly for the call to get Dennis. May God comfort you and provide peace as you wait. Stefanie