How A Family Devotional Turned Into An Answer To Prayer

     Now that we are having a child entering into our family, we have started adding things to our lives.  One of those things is a family devotional time, right before going to sleep.  It has been a blessing to us.
     Typically, Dear and I would pretty much do our own thing.  He has so many running Bible studies, and I have many thoughts and ideas.  We can be in the same room, but in two different "worlds."  He will bounce his thoughts my way, and vice versa.  It has worked out best this way for us; but now, a child needs our help and guidance.
     What we have enjoyed doing is simply reading a chapter or two a night.  Usually, Dear and I will pray, and then he will read.  It works best if I am laying down, so we can both enjoy the subtle, (and sometimes not so subtle!) movements of our Li'l Man.  Soon enough, Li'l Man will be cuddled next to us, as Papa Dear reads (and, occasionally, Mama).
     Last night was especially touching.  There are some decisions we have to make, in the best interest of Li'l Man and I.  Nothing too serious, and definitely not anything too difficult for God.  Yet, we want to make the best decision.  We realize this decision is just one of many in the lifetime of care for which we will be responsible.

"Motherly Love"
Ernest Walbourn

     We both have been praying about it, and last night was no different.  It is very easy for me to be teary-eyed about it, (and with many things).  Again, last night was no different.  I am thankful for an understanding, long-suffering husband, and an Heavenly Father who loves me so tenderly.
     Once through with prayer, Dear started reading.  Currently, we are in the book of John.  It is a favorite for both of us.  Picking up in chapter sixteen, I lay there as he read.
     My mind was consumed with the hurdle before me.  It felt insurmountable.  Of course, on my own, it is.  I can do no good thing on my own.  This whole pregnancy has been a constant praise to the Father.
     I had to focus intently to what Dear read.  My mind was too easily distracted, even though we both had prayed, again, about the matter; even though we have a few close loved ones praying about the matter.  Oh, how sheepish am I!
     As he got to verse 21, my ears perked up.  The Lord had my attention.  By the time Dear was ready to start chapter 17, I had to stop him.  I was completely overwhelmed.
     "Did you know we would be reading those words tonight?"  I inquired of him.  (For, I know how studious my husband is:  having memorized verses thoroughly, and being greatly adept at quickly going to a reference point for many a Biblical matter.)
     "No," he quizzically answered.  I do not think he had put together what I had just prayed, with what he had just read.  However, it did not take long, as he quickly glanced over the last chapter we had read.
     When I saw it dawn on him, I could not hold it inside me any longer.  The tears flowed.  I hid my face, because I felt an "ugly cry" coming.  I was simply undone at the too-coincidental-to-be-a-coincidence words of God that we had just read, right after my prayer to Him.
     (It has only happened a few times in my life, that I can recall.  I really wish I had recorded each one, for memory's sake.  Well, today, I am at least recording this one!)
     I still do not know what the future will hold, regarding this particular situation.  Yet, I know that I know that I know that God heard my plea, and will answer according to His perfect, loving will.  I have great comfort in my Abba, Father.
     I also take comfort that He knows my heart, and can handle it.  He knows what to do and say to take care of it.  And in regards to this current situation?  He took care of my heart, with what we read from His lips last night:

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father. At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God. Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe? Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." 

John 16:20-33

     Then, of course, the very next chapter overwhelmed my heart, too.  Just knowing that He prayed, and is praying for, me...I cannot describe the feelings that well up within my heart.  Together, these two passages turned my eyes off of the unsteady seas around me, and back to the eyes of my Saviour.

"These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them." 

John 17

Isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful?