By Alli T
Tonight I opened my Bible and turned to a chapter that has been a rock for me recently. The words Jesus speaks in Matthew, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” The beginning of the next chapter continues to say, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”
The Lord has shown me over the last six years or so that my plans are in vain. He knows me. I am his child. He knows that He had to make many of my plans go up in smoke or become virtually impossible, so that I must look to him for guidance and to see where he wants me and what he has in store. The more I have learned to listen and follow, the more I can truly say that God knows what he is doing, as he leads me down roads I never could have imagined, yet how sweet they are.
I love keeping a prayer journal because sometimes I look back through and see how faithful the Lord was in all things – big and small. How he distinctly answers some of my prayers, as I ask, or as he creatively answers in a different and better way.
I never had planned to move to Dallas, but God was tugging on my heart, and I was feeling led here. As I started to earnestly pray about what was next and where to go, Dallas just kept coming back. Then the way He so graciously opened all doors, a job that is perfect for me and able to live with my best friend. As I was preparing to come down here I loved the preceding words in Matthew, as I knew the Lord would take care of me. I prayed, and still do, that he would go before me and prepare my way. That we would open up a great living situation, and great friends. That he would lead me to amazing community and a place that I feel like I can just be me. I know I have only been here for about two weeks, but I have to say he has answered those prayers better than I ever could have imagined. The friends he has brought into my life, the living situation, the job, church, everything. I am so thankful to my loving Father who truly does take care of his children.