
I sat next to the Christmas tree staring with wonderment at the explosion of gifts that extended past the tree. This is one my favorite parts of Christmas. The kids are in the downstairs family room having their traditional sibling sleep over while my husband and I sneak around upstairs stuffing stockings and arranging gifts. Once satisfied that every gift is where it should be, we sit down and have a quiet time with God for he is the giver of gifts. Every year, I feel like a child again amazed and humbled by his generosity. This year was different. As I sat there with tears of gratitude in my eyes, I looked down at the paper I held. This paper was special. This paper contained impossible dreams.
At the beginning of the year, my family was given a challenge to make a list of 22 prayer requests for the year 2022. Intrigued by this challenge, my husband and I had decided to get away from distractions, go out to breakfast and discuss what we should put down on this list. Once we had our list written down, we hung it up on the refrigerator for the rest of the family to see. As prayers began to be answered throughout the year, we all excitedly crossed them off the list with the date. Now the year was coming to a close and I looked at the list with amazement. Two weddings completely paid for, good jobs for each of the kids, publishers for my books, and the list goes on. These were HUGE impossible things! There were other requests that although not fully completed, were still in the process of being answered. Other items were replaced by things we didn’t know we had needed. All in all, every request had been given an answer- yes, being processed, or wait.
This was a miraculous year for us. If I had known of all the things that were going to happen, I would have dug myself into the deepest hole I could find and hide. Looking at all of these impossible requests increased my faith in God’s faithfulness, his tender care, and his provision. There’s never a need to hide when you have Jesus!
My faith challenge to you is to create a list of 23 things that you would like to see God do a work in. It could be financial, emotional, health, or anything else. Hang it up for the family to see and to be in prayer for, then stand back and watch God work. Now, let’s take a pause for a moment. God is not Santa or the Geni. How we approach this challenge is through faith. Faith that God sees deeper than our needs and desires, faith that he knows what is best, and faith in his timing of answers. He sees the greater picture.
Come to him open handed allowing him to answer in his way. Don’t try to control or manipulate the requests. All you need to do is to pray and ask, leave the rest up to him.
If this challenge is something you are interested in participating in this year, I have a great worksheet accessible to subscribers that helps you discover where your prayer life is currently at, how your relationship with God is, and how to grow in your prayer walk.
Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.” Matthew 19:26 (NLT)
"Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for." Luke 11:9 (NLT)
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