What can we do?

This has been my question of late.
I have found that when I have day after day of simple pictures posted on my blog, that my heart is working on a particular something that must be examined. Then I can finally sit to study and explore and can open up to share with you.
This is not an easy thing for me to do, but I know someone out there must have some of these same feelings at some time and feel like good can come from laying out my imperfections and hopes.
So here we go....

It is our practice in this home to have family bedtime prayers.
Each of us takes a turn talking to God, thanking him for our blessings and making our requests known.

I have found myself fighting tears and pleading with God so much lately on behalf of others.

I bet you have a list similar to mine...

a man who's young daughter is fighting Leukemia
a family who is yearning for adoption of children in a system designed against them
a woman who has lost her husband and is herself in the hospital
a woman who has lost a child and is worried for the one she now carries
cities devastated by storms in need of help and healing
people in need of jobs, who have been in need for sometime
and
and
and....
so very much to ask God to work in.
Then prayer time is over and I get back to my suburban life and feel like I am doing nothing all over again.
I was needing some encouragement on this matter and thought you might as well.

We have to serve and love where we can.
I cannot leave my family and go to Joplin or Japan to touch lives there.
I have to choose to serve here in ways that are possible for me as a Mom of 3 children who need me here. (You have to serve and love where you are.)

I know there are opportunities here for me that I am neglecting.
Things that I can be doing which are so far into my zone of discomfort that fear and doubt that keep me from doing them.

I don't want to be that person....
I don't want to desire to love and serve for the Lord then pass up chances when they are presented because of my personal weaknesses and fears.
I have got some growing up to do and fast, because there is too much need in this world.



I must,
you must...answer the call, do what we can;
then we have to be okay with that being all we can do, and sit down to pray some more.

Do where we can, pray where we can't.

Do where we can...hmmmmm?
I can use words to encourage many of these people.
I can visit the hospital.
I can put together a pile of clothes for those in need.

That is it!
What a measly ridiculously small list of cans.
It almost makes me sick to my stomach.
But wait, we still have to factor in prayer.
Suddenly there is hope again for the amount of change you and I can effect.

James 5:16b-18
The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. 18 Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit.

Proverbs 15:8b
the prayer of the upright is His delight.

Psalms 34:15
15 The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous And His ears are open to their cry.

Phil. 4:6-7
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Psalms 145:17-19
17 The LORD is righteous in all His ways And kind in all His deeds. 18 The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth. 19 He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He will also hear their cry and will save them.

1John 5:14-15
14 This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.


My prayers choked out with tears are requests for healing and respite from pain. Prayers for change in what seems like a path of frustration for people who do love God. Prayers to understand HIS will in situations that seem fraught with only heartache.

I find myself in a constant struggle of seeing what I think is best in a situation and knowing with faith that God's will is perfect and right.
Pleading for change while knowing that the outcome, whatever it may be, is for his purpose.

I want to keep these thoughts from Proverbs close to my heart
16:4 The Lord works out everything for his own ends

16:9 In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.

19:21 Many are the plans of a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails

21:30 There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord.


So?
What can we do?

Do where we can and pray where we can't.

Well I suppose for the most of us, that means a little more of the same.
And, for some of us that means more of reaching outside of our comfort zone into where Christ would have us be.