Birthday Blessings!

I am SO amazingly spoiled by my Dad. God gave me the BEST birthday presents this year. No lie. He never ceases to amaze me. This year though, God really out did Himself, and made this my best birthday ever.

This year I have been yearning to serve a particular group of people here at CNU, and God definitely opened a door for me. We’ve been trying to set different things up for the past few weeks, and things just never really fell into place- until tonight. I was able to make them dinner, which was SO awesome! I was so excited to finally be able to serve them and show them the love of Christ in a practical way. It was so great to finally be able to meet some of the guys I had been praying for! I pray that through this (and hopefully more service opportunities in the future!) will allow these guys to really see and experience the love of Christ, and start asking more questions about it.

So, as if I wasn’t excited enough about that answer to prayer, I also found out last night that one guy that I have been praying for recently (he’s not a Christian….yet) decided to go to the Campus Crusade meeting here on campus! Cru is currently doing a series on “Answering the Tough Questions;” they are answering common questions, like why Christianity is the only true religion, etc. So this guy went with some friends to check it out! I’m so overjoyed that he is open to exploring Christianity and learning more about what we believe!

THEN, as if that wasn’t ENOUGH, God gave me MORE! He blesses me SO abundantly. I had an amazing small group Wednesday night, and we spent over an hour discussing one verse from Proverbs 31. It was so intense and amazing. I was able to have such solid conversations with people today, and I have just been so encouraged by that. George Boomer came to speak at IV tonight, and his message just really hit home with me. He was talking about Nehemiah, and went through chapters 1 and 2. I can’t even begin to summarize all the stuff that he said, but it was like he was speaking directly to me! It was definitely what I needed to hear. Encouraging, for sure.

AND FINALLY- I have been praying for this guy that I had Organic Chemistry lab with last semester; his name is Casey. I wasn’t sure if he was a Christian or not, but I just really felt the desire to pray for him- either that he would come to know the Lord, or that he would grow closer to God and learn to follow Him with reckless abandonment. So, I’m at IV tonight, singing worship songs, and I glance behind me- and Casey is standing there. He had been studying, but he heard the music and came up to investigate. I went over to say hello and ask if he needed someone to sit with. We talked for a bit, and he ended up staying for the whole thing. He said he plans on coming back next week, and he might even join a small group! When we were talking he said it was really encouraging to find a group like IV on campus and he was thinking about checking out Cru, too. :D

Seriously, you guys. We serve a BIG God. He knew that I needed some encouragement. And man, did He deliver. If you’ve read any of my earlier posts, you know that God has burdened me to pray for a lot of guys who are lost right now and don’t really know the Lord. I have really been convicted by the parable of the Persistent Widow that is found in Luke 18:1-8. Jesus tells us this parable so that we will know that we “ought always to pray and not lose heart.” I was beginning to lose heart because I had been praying for these guys and trying to minister to them, and satan just kept blocking me at every opportunity it seemed. I wasn’t seeing any results. And then today happened. These were just the big things God did today- I can’t even begin to list the little things He did throughout the day. Let me just encourage you- we serve a powerful, sovereign God. He is mighty to save. For real. He loves us. He knows us: when we sit, when we rise, even the number of hairs on our heads. He knows us better than we know ourselves! And He knows exactly how and when to encourage us. Isn’t that so comforting?