Be careful what you pray for…

This week I’m going to share about an experience I had with the Lord last week. The Lord gave me a reality check, and it made me think about the things that we want and pray for. We want it to come a certain way, but when it doesn’t come as we expected it too, we all of a sudden don’t want it anymore.

It all started at the beginning of the year when I started to feel in my spirit that the Lord was preparing me to move. Now, I’ve moved a few times, so I know what this feels like. I told God many years ago, that I would go wherever He wanted me to go and do whatever He wanted me to do. In speaking these sweet little words, my life has been just that; on the go!

Trust me; every move is never easy. Matter of fact, I absolutely “HATE” to move although many may think otherwise. It seems right when I get settled in and established the Lord says it’s time to move.

I took a step of faith and put my 60-day notice in not knowing where or when I would be moving. I just knew I would be moving. I was still praying on where He wanted me to go. Of course, my flesh wanted to move back to Las Vegas so I could be with all of my family and friends. But… When I went back to Vegas last month, and I was praying and asking the Lord where He wanted me to go? He told me that I would NOT be moving back to Vegas. Of course, I was heartbroken; I wanted to be closer to my family.

I continued to pray, and I had visited Memphis a few times to support my pastors in the launch of their new church. When I first heard about the move of my pastors to Memphis, I told the Lord I’m not moving to Memphis. But, months passed, and the more I prayed about where He wanted me to move the more He confirmed to me I was to move to Memphis. Now me being a little stubborn, I needed Him to confirm it to me a few times. I even tested God and told him “Fine, if you want me to move to Memphis you need to make a way for this to happen in the time frame you want me to move!” (those were my exact words!) I needed a certain amount to make the move happen in the time frame He was asking, and I kid you not, the very next day, the amount was paid in full to the exact dollar amount!!!

I’m not going to lie; I fought God on this for a little while and once I gave him my “yes, I will go” it was like a roller coaster of emotions hit me. Part of me was excited to start a new chapter and for what was to come, but then I also started feeling sad and depressed about moving. Negative thoughts were running rampant through mind about having to start over, thinking about the backlash that I’m going to hear from family and friends. Not only that, but the move would mean me having to take a demotion at my job (once I moved). This was hard because if I stayed in San Antonio, I would be promoting to the next level within a month or two. I mean I was a hot mess trying to work all these emotions out in my mind.

Now, let’s take it back to last Monday night. I’m in church worshiping and our guest singer gets on stage and starts singing “expand my territory.” Then my pastor gets up and starts talking about the prayer of Jabez. I’m right in the middle of worshiping, and the Lord brings to my memory a challenge I did back at the beginning of the year where I prayed the Prayer of Jabez for 30 days straight.

At that moment I felt so convicted. Here I was saying how sad I’m feeling that I have to move and start over and just feeding into all these negative thoughts. Then I heard the Lord say to me “Why do you keep saying your sad when this is what you prayed for? You prayed for me to expand your territory and here I am expanding you. You need to keep your focus on the prize! You are keeping your focus on the negative.” I immediately had to ask the Lord for forgiveness, because He was right, I prayed, and asked Him to expand my territory!

That’s why I titled this week’s blog “Be careful what you pray for!” God may answer your prayer; it just may not come the way you expect it to come. God’s not obligated to answer your prayers the way you want Him too, but if and when He answers it, know that it will be the way it was supposed to be answered. God will always have our best interest. He can see the future, we can’t, but that’s why we must have our faith and trust in Him because He will not fail us!

I really hate to move and moving is always difficult for me; it’s emotionally and physically draining. But… I can say that every time He has told me to move, He has blessed me with more each time. The Lord will honor your sacrifice; you just have to put your faith and trust in Him! Once you do that, grab a bag of popcorn, sit back, and watch Him move in your life!