Final Thoughts on "Thoughts"

(this will make a lot more sense if you’ve read parts 1 and 2)

"I am an open book to you; even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking" Psalm 139:2

I said in part one of this that God’s lessons are deep and wide, and through this particular lesson, I have learned and/or been reminded of many things, two of which are this:

1. There are scriptural truths that I can and SHOULD be praying for my children

2. How God orchestrates things to bring about what He wants; ie. Dog going behind the bed so I could find my bookmark, and the other acts that couldn’t come to the Autumn Fest so that Christy could.

However, having said that, there is really ONE main point that God was teaching me through all of this, and the point was "He knows our thoughts!" Why was this so important to me right now?

Here’s why…

It seems that I have been called to intercessory prayer. I say it like that because I don’t think of myself as a prayer warrior. The mental picture I have of someone who is a prayer warrior, is someone who takes the church prayer list, and prays over and over and over for the people on it until something has been resolved. That’s not how God works this intercessory prayer role with me. The way God works with me is, He will lay someone on my heart, and I am consumed with that person. I will think about them practically non-stop, and also pray for them a lot! It’s almost always for a season while God is working something out with that person, or bringing something to fruition.

For the past year, God has had three people on my heart. These three individuals have been so fervently on my mind, that just recently, the day before I wrote the first "thought" post, I asked God to stop. I asked Him to take them off of my mind. (good prayer warrior eh?) I thought it was weird that they were on my mind SO much. I obviously couldn’t pray for them THAT much because I have a life to live…work to do, a family that needs my attention. So I said, "Lord, I think of them all the time, but I feel a little guilty that I’m not praying for them all the time."

Well, the very next day, I found the bookmark behind the bed, and it was if God said to me, "you didn’t pray about this, you only thought about it, and I answered anyway." Then He reminded me of the thought I had at P31 regarding voice lessons, and He said, "you didn’t pray about this, you just thought about it, and I answered anyway." Then He brought up the individuals who are on my mind, and He said, "I know that when you think of them, mostly what you are thinking is how much you care about them, and that you want Me to lavish My love on them, and you want My will done in their lives. I hear those thoughts too, just as I heard your other thoughts."

Could it be that when someone’s on our mind, the mere "thought" that we have of them goes up before the throne of God?

Do we ever see God answer thoughts in the Bible? Yeah, we do.

In Luke chapter 7, Jesus is at the house of one of the Pharisees, and a sinful woman comes in and she stood at His feet, weeping, raining tears on His feet. She poured very expensive perfume on Him. When the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he said to himself (or thought) "if this man was the prophet I thought he was, he would have known what kind of woman this is who is falling all over him." Luke 7:39 (MSG) Then, "Jesus answered his thoughts…" Luke 7:40 NLT

I’m not saying don’t pray. I’m not saying don’t go boldly before the throne and ask for what you need. I’m not saying don’t go forth with heartfelt repentance. I’m just trying to stress how FULLY and COMPLETELY He knows us, and understands us, and loves us. And I’m stressing that with you because that’s what He has stressed to me the last couple of weeks. What a personal God He is.

Psalm 139:2, 3
" I’m an open book to you; even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking. You know when I leave and when I get back; I’m never out of your sight. You know everything I’m going to say before I start the first sentence."

The other thing that God impressed upon me is this: if God has truly laid these individuals on my heart, wouldn’t it make sense that my thoughts of them would seemingly outnumber the grains of sand?

Psalm 139:17, 18 "how precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand."

"Thanks, Jesus, for the lesson. Thanks for allowing us to join you in interceding for the ones that you love. Thanks for loving us so personally that you even know what we’re thinking. Forgive us when we have thoughts that aren’t so pleasing to you. Bless those that read this."