Always be joyful and never stop praying!

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18  Contemporary English Version (CEV)

¹⁶Always be joyful ¹⁷and never stop praying. ¹⁸Whatever happens, keep thanking God because of Jesus Christ. This is what God wants you to do.

I am so excited to be doing my first blog for the Shaw Soul Sisters.  Each week when I receive the blog it’s one of the emails that I don’t just skip over in my inbox; I take the time to read it because it usually puts a smile on my face and reminds me that I’m not alone in the things that I go through.

I’d like to start by telling you a little bit about myself.  I’ve been attending The Word at Shaw for almost a year now.  I was brought here by the Holy Spirit.  As a child and early teen, I went to church about every Sunday, attended Church Camp every summer, and knew that Jesus had given his life for my sins.  But as I became a young adult and went away to college, I forgot about Jesus and what he had done for me and why.  I walked away from my faith.  I still occasionally prayed but almost always out of desperation when I couldn’t figure things out myself.  I never remembered that all the good things that happened to me were manifested by God!  Life went on like this for over ten years or maybe even closer to fifteen.

Then almost exactly a year ago, I found myself fleeing to The Women’s Safe House; hurt, afraid, emotionally and spiritually broken.  I made a choice to be free!  Not just for me, but for my boys too.  Free from over five years of about every type of abuse that can exist within a marriage.  I went to the safe house, not because I didn’t have any other place to go, but because it was not safe for me.  I had made an extremely dangerous decision.

I had no money, no job, and very little support because of the years of isolation, but I was determined to make a better life for us.  So over the next couple days, The Word at Shaw beckoned me. And I am so glad that I made it that first Sunday, and the next, and the next, and the next…

I have been able to rebuild my relationship with Christ.  He never left me, he never turned his back on me.  I just had to be open to his love and forgiveness.  People used to tell me, “trust in the Lord for all your needs and he will provide.”  I believed that they knew what they were talking about, but I didn’t think I had ever experienced it first hand.

Finding God’s love again was the most joyful thing in my life.  I kept praising God for my freedom and praying that I would understand His plan for my life.  The more I praised God for what He had done in my life and asked for things I felt I needed, the more He showed Himself to me.  My fear was disappearing, my self-esteem was getting better, and I started feeling safe again.  God was bringing people into my life that truly cared about me, people who would encourage me and tell me to “trust in the Lord and He will provide”.  The more I trusted God the better things got in my life.  Now here it is a year later and I have a wonderful home, a great job, more food to eat than I could ask for, and a church-family that loves and supports me.

I chose the verse above, 

     “Always be joyful and never stop praying.  Whatever happens, keep thanking God                           

       because of Jesus Christ.  This is what God wants you to do,” 

because I’m sure there are times when we forget how blessed we really are.  When my kids and I pray each night the list of thanksgiving goes on and on.  I’m gonna give you a small example.  “Thank you Jesus for today, thank you Jesus for our bed, thank you Jesus for our covers, thank you Jesus for our family, thank you Jesus for our friends, thank you Jesus for our food, thank you Jesus for our hot water, thank you Jesus for the bus, thank you Jesus for the metrolink, thank you Jesus for socks, thank you Jesus for our tv, thank you Jesus for our toys, …”

I use this as an example because my kids and I are so grateful for even some of the smallest things.  Yes we really do pray for the bus because without it we couldn’t get anywhere and for the t.v. because without it we wouldn’t get to watch the weather.  Sometimes it’s Goodwill that we pray for because we can buy new clothes without spending much money. 

God provides!  He provides so much that I think sometimes we forget that there are others out there who are praying for something that we take for granted.  Like last night, while most of us watched the Super Bowl, don’t you know there were hungry children in our own city praying for something to eat?  Don’t you know there were men and women in our city praying for a warm place to sleep?  While we rooted on a team and ate lots of snacks, there was a mother crying because her child had just died. 

This isn’t to say that we are all ungrateful and that we should be ashamed of ourselves.  No, it’s just a reminder to be joyful and continue to pray, no matter how good or bad life is for you in this moment.

My challenge to you this week is two-fold.  Each day take a moment to thank God for something that you usually take for granted, find something new each day.  And secondly, each day pray for someone you don’t know or for something that is foreign to you.  Pray that someone else’s prayers are answered in a way that our Father in Heaven gets all the glory.

I’ll start:  Thank you Father for a refrigerator and microwave at work so I can bring my leftovers and save the money I would spend on lunch.  And I’m gonna pray for the students in the job readiness class that no matter what they are going through they will find the courage and confidence to become a better them and get on a path of success.

Have a great week and I’ll be praying for you!

Your sister in Christ,  

Ruth Gary