I was told I would do Call to Worship this morning. I'm always thinking and prayerful about what God wants me to present to the congregation. Today, I felt one phrase resonating in my spirit, repetitively: "God is mindful of us." I found the verse to correspond with this phrase in Psalm 8:4: "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" In the NIV, it says: "What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?" So, as I do, I went to Strong's Concordance and investigated the word "mindful"--marked, recognized, remember, mentioned, mindful, think on...
I thought that was interesting.
We are marked by Him. Set apart. We are indeed His. The last part (buried toward the end of the entry) was interesting to me, as well--"think on." One version of this verse says He "thinks about" us. But He doesn't just think about us in one thought--He thinks ON us. To me, this is saying that He spends time THINKING ABOUT us. He cares for us.
He IS mindful of us. I shared the fact that I didn't realize God had answered our prayer and song and sent us snow for Christmas. "I'm dreaming of a White Christmas..." Many people I knew were discouraged that it hadn't snowed on Christmas. BUT IT HAD. My friends who attend mainline churches posted about it. It snowed here on January 6, 2017, the 12th Day of Christmas, the Epiphany. It did indeed snow of Christmas!!! When I saw my friends post about this, I thought to myself of the spiritual ramifications:
It snowed. Not on my calendar. But on a calendar I wasn't as familiar with. It was His calendar, so to speak. He did indeed answer my prayer--just on his timeline, not my own.
God is mindful of us.
As I prepared for church and went through two services, I kept witnessing this very thing (evidence of His mindfulness) present itself over and over and over.
And then...
In the first service...Sister Cathy led an older song for us, one called "It's a New Season, It's a New Day." And when she did, I just broke down. I couldn't believe it. This Monday, in early devotions, when I thought my entire world was going to cave in on my head, when I got up at 3 a.m. because I couldn't sleep and started writing devotions to the Lord, He brought that song to my mind. I even thought, "Should I fleece God on this song? Like, that this song will be sung on Sunday? That that will be evidence that He sees me, knows what's going on, etc.? I opted not to fleece Him with that song.
"No. I trust Him. I don't have to fleece Him. I'll fleece Him when I really need to..."
I almost fell down when Sister Cathy started singing it today. After I processed what was going on, I knelt down on the floor, face down, and wept, thanking Him for His faithfulness, His promises, His mindfulness.
I didn't fleece the Lord for that song. But He was showing me that He knew. He had heard my inner dialogue about it all.
Sometimes I feel like the Lord is patting the top of my head, like we often do children.
"I see you," He seems to say. "You're doing fine and you're going to make it."
(I so love Him.)
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