You have known me to say, "Circumstances do not change the promise."

One day this week, God set me up.

I was preparing to take my morning prayer walk, and I felt God pulling me to go ahead and "read the red" before my walk. (If you normally read my blog, you know that I read a verse or more of the words of Jesus at morning and bedtime.) The verse that I read was Mark 5:39: "Why make ye this ado, and weep? the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth" (KJV). The New King James Version reads, " 'Why make this commotion and weep? The child is not dead, but sleeping.' "

What I did not know was that the moment I stepped out of my house I would step into circumstances that challenged God's promises to me and the overwhelming evidence that He has been answering prayers. My normal response to such evidence is to panic and worry that things are worse than I thought. I would usually go into intense prayer, begging God and trying to manipulate Him into doing things my way to make things "better."

A few seconds into my working into a frenzy, I remembered the verse and God's preparing me. Why was I extremely close to making a commotion? I have prayed and prayed, and God has answered in more ways that I know. I KNOW that He has this, that He is Faithful, and that I can trust Him.

There is no reason to panic! Our prodigals are "not dead, but sleeping!"

That particular morning, I was reminded that we do not have to panic, we do not have to beg, and we do not have to manipulate. We simply have to ask. God is our Father. He loves us, and He has promised to give good gifts to us!

"Why make this commotion and weep? The child is not dead, but sleeping."