Can I encourage you that in the busy-ness of our days and in all our preparations and celebrations that we still take time to stop for the one. To take a moment to see if the smile from the shop assistant is only on their mouths and not in their eyes, that the person we talk on the phone to who says their ‘fine’ really are fine? God wants to use us. All He looks for is a willing vessel, no matter how inadequate we feel.
Miracles await those who step out. Beautiful moments of us becoming aware that our God, Jesus, is in fact a living, loving God who can help us face our own storms and see them calm, and can help us show others Him.
Allow me to share a story with you about my yesterday morning.
I was rushing about trying to get our food shop done and banking and other menial but needed tasks. I usually go to the same checkout lady every week if I can, we have lovely chats and over the last few years we have been getting to know one another (well as much as one can at a checkout). However, when I arrived at the checkouts she had a huge line and the lady next to her only had one person, so I opted for the quicker option as I had my three boys with me, and everyone knows how wonderful it is to shop with three energetic boys in tow ;-).
I began to unpack my shopping and noticed that the lady had a bandage on her left hand and that she was unable to lift anything with it (which you can imagine would make it difficult to pack shopping into bags). I asked her if it was very painful and what she had done to it. She was unsure what had happened but said that it happened a few days ago and she had taken a couple of days off work but couldn’t afford to take any more. I felt prompted to pray for her. So I did, in my head. But I felt prompted to tell her I could pray for her. She is from a different culture and religious background than myself and I was a little worried I would scare or offend her but knew that God was impressing on me to tell her that He heals. So I asked her if I could pray for her to my God because He is a healing God and she said yes.
I thought great, she knows I will pray and she’ll remember when the pain goes away it was Jesus who healed her. So I prayed again in my mind. But again, I was prompted that I should lay hands on her and pray out loud. This happens to me often but hadn’t happened in a while.I said to God, ‘ok, if you want me to lay hands on her, you have to make it not so busy so she won’t get in trouble or worry about the customers in line’. It was very busy and people were lining up at every available checkout, even the ones either side of us, but no-one was lining up at ours!! So I said quickly, ‘Let me pray for you now. Can I touch your hurting hand?’ She said yes though looked a little startled. All I said was “God I know you are a healing God and you are a good God. So right now we speak to this hand and say be healed now in the name of Jesus” I had no sooner prayed for her and people began lining up at the checkout. She kept staring at me and rubbing her hand and I paid for my shopping and she had to get on with the other customers. I could feel the presence of God and I asked her if she was ok and she said her hand was all warm. This was all she got to say before the next customer began talking to her.
I don’t know if her hand is healed, but I know she was touched by our God. He is alive and wanting to be involved in our everyday lives and make the mundane become the extraordinary that as Christians should be the norm 🙂 I look forward to seeing her again and believe it will be a good report.
As an aside, I had immense pain shooting through my ear and head and had it for the last day before I prayed for the lady at the checkout. After I prayed for her the pain was gone. I still feel like my ears are blocked but the pain is no longer there. I hope this encourages you to step out believing that God will do what he says he will do.
Bless you 🙂
Centre Peace 