An Answered Prayer

I didn't realize this was what I needed most in the moment

In a recent prayer I typed out on my computer, I wrote, “I feel like I have too many spinning plates. And I don’t know which to attend to and which to let drop. I think I am trying to do everything all at once and so often I find myself worn out, looking around wondering what on earth I’m supposed to do next.”

I was feeling overwhelmed. My brain had been in a near constant state of “try this! Now this! Now this!” hoping that something would tame the chaos. I was having trouble resting, sitting still, and trusting God because I felt like life was passing me by and I wasn’t doing enough, wasn’t becoming enough. So I was trying to surrender that worry.

A few hours later, I opened the latest edition of The Weekly One, which is a Christian newsletter I love, and found this written right in the middle:

Too often we worry about what God wants us to do, instead of focusing on simply being who He wants us to be. The Bible may not tell you who to marry, how many kids to have, what job you should take, what house to buy, but it does tell you who God wants you to be. So when we focus on being who God created us to be, the what and how decisions will naturally flow from there.

Reading it, I felt my shoulders relax. I felt butterflies in my stomach. Because while I still had questions, still had specific prayers I wanted God to answer, this seemed to encapsulate the feeling I was struggling with, and it gave me perhaps what I needed most in that moment: a reminder that God is listening.

And isn’t that amazing when He does that? When the God of the universe finds a way to show you that he sees you.  When He works the algorithm to put a specific message in your inbox on the exact day you need to hear it?

It reminds me not only that God is with us, but that he really does have everything under control.

“When doubts filled my mind, your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer.” -Psalm 94:19