So, I’ve been a bit quiet lately. Somehow writing things in bullet points makes it easier, so here we go:
- I’m still writing (and re-writing), but things are going slower than I expected
- It’s frustrating, as I’d really hoped to have something new for you guys soon
- Unfortunately, it’s probably going to be a while longer
- I’m still hard at work writing and I’ll tell you more as soon as I can!
To be honest, ‘frustrating’ is probably an understatement. I love entertaining you guys, and it’s driving me wild that I’m not able to provide anything new for you yet.
This experience of not living up to my own expectations has been a difficult one. One I was wrestling with as my boyfriend and I showed up to a mate’s house on Sunday night. We enjoyed a dinner of snags on the barbie together (points to any readers of A Girl’s Guide to the Outback who know what that means) and then started talking about Philippians 4:8 and praying for each other. Two of my friends raised prayer points about things coming up this week that were really stressing them out.
Now, I’ve literally been to hundreds of prayer meetings. I expected a couple of us would pray for the situation, maybe someone would pray for peace and guidance, and that would be it.
But a mate of mine had just led our discussion on Phil 4:8, mainly ruminating on the implications of focusing our minds on faith or fear. (By the way, as a child of the 90s raised in church culture, I’d only ever heard this verse used to tell me not to watch movies that had too much swearing. So this was a take on it I’d never really pondered before.)
So this mate, after we’d prayed our usual prayers for peace, guidance, deliverance, etc., leaned forward and asked my stressed friend, “Would you like to pray to hand these fears over to God?” And he led them in a prayer that went something like this:
God, I repent of my fears and invite your truth into this situation.
I feel like NAME THE FEARS
I hand my ISSUE over to You.
I ask for Your help.
Please make me more like You.
Thank you that each situation is an opportunity to deepen my relationship with You.
Thank you that INSERT TRUTH ABOUT GOD HERE.
The prayer really hit me. This was an opportunity? And the idea of repenting for my fears – it’s not something I’ve often done. Why be sorry just for being afraid? But my Christian psychologist had lead me in a couple of similar prayers before, and I’d found them really freeing. And our whole discussion on Phil 4:8 and focusing on truth/faith rather than fear really resonated with my past experiences. During one tough time, a tactic that was recommended to me was writing a list of God’s truths and reading them every morning. Focusing on those truths really helped start a positive spiral.
So, I went home and journaled the prayer, and prayed it for some things that had really been bothering me. Today, as I prepared to officially start writing in 2021 (I took a break over the holidays), I was still very frustrated that last year (at least in terms of writing) turned out nothing like I’d hoped – while I watched friends who started publishing at the same time as me go from strength to strength.
Then I realised I could apply the prayer to this situation, too. Is this frustrating? Yes. But this is an opportunity for me and God to deepen our relationship. It’s a chance for God to draw my eyes away from my fears and focus on His truths instead.
Is there a prayer that’s really helped you during a difficult situation? I’d love to hear it!
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