It's For You...

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters, He refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for His Name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely Your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever (Psalm 23, NIV).

I’m sitting in my room and I had just finished watching a YouTube video by Paul Washer, who goes all the way in by the way, and I could feel that tug. You know that tug when God wants you to spend some time with Him and you can just feel Him pulling on your spirit. So I pop open the iTunes, click worship playlist, cut off the lights, and I began to pray. I told God that I sensed Him pulling on me and I felt that He was leading me to pray for someone. I felt an urgency to pray for someone but I didn’t know who and I’m asking God please give me the words, show me what it is that You want me to pray for and who it is because I’m not sure why you are pulling on me so heavily. I then said actually, God I don’t need to know who because You know but just show me what to pray for. I felt the Holy Spirit showing me to pray for strength and comfort and I’m thinking okay God. Before I start to pray I repented of anything that would cause God to not honor my prayer and I asked Him to remove any distraction that would keep my prayer from going through. I go to pray and I wonder again God who am I praying for? A soft yet overwhelming response came of “it’s for you.”

It’s funny how when you’re in a position to help other people, you can have a tendency to get so focused on pouring into others that you don’t quite take the time to pray over yourself. Your mind can easily go to encouraging someone else or pouring out to someone else that you don’t allow God to pour into you. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to have other people who are praying over you and giving you encouraging words but that can never replace having God Himself to pour back into you or even to reveal to you areas of your heart that you had tucked far away. Don’t forget to take the time to pray over yourself as well. I want to share the same reminder that God placed in my spirit tonight with you and that is that it’s going to be okay. It will be okay. You’re stronger than this because I am with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. You’re going to be okay. It's okay for you to feel this way. Don’t focus on the time that you feel you have lost but focus on the time that you still have and make the most of that. You will be okay.

There is truly no one word that even comes close to explaining just how awesome God is.