Answer to Prayer

God is so good!  I just wanted to write down in words how God has been answering my prayers lately.  Calvary Chapel (the church I call home) has recently decided to try something new called "house churches."  This doesn't mean that the normal Sunday service is gone, but it is something on top of that.  House churches are a way for the body to fellowship together and get involved.  There are about 20 different house churches as of now that each meet a different night.  Our pastor challenged us to pick a night and a house church and attend for an 8 week commitment.  Heath and I saw this as a perfect opportunity to meet new people and get more involved at Calvary.  Let me just tell you, it has been such a blessing and an answer to prayer!  Already we have met some wonderful people at our house church.  We come together (ours has about 41 people) and meet to pray, talk about the Sunday message and fellowship together.  Having felt the need to have deeper christian relationships with those who would be able to help mentor us we have been working on getting together outside of the house church with some people.  I know God is going to use these House Churches in ways I can't even fathom for anyone who attends.  Already it has been so great for Heath and I.  One specific example that stands out to me happened last week. 
We broke into smaller groups of about 10-15 for prayer time and Heath and I decided to go into separate groups.  In my group the prayer requests were very touching, parents calling out for their spouses, sons and/or daughters to be saved or helped in some way or another.  I sat there in silence as I realized how deeply they were all burning for their loved one's hearts to follow Christ, something I won't fully know about until I'm older with kids of my own.  But as I sat there, praying for them I was trying to come up with my own prayer requests.  All I could think of seemed minuscule in comparison to some of their hurts, the most I could come up with was help in paying off my debt.  More specifically, help in trusting God that I will be able to pay off my debt fast.  Feeling like it would seem trivial to share, I decided that I wouldn't and instead just prayed in my head about it during periods of silence.  But I still seemed to feel doubtful that God would be able to provide the money to pay it off.  My goal is to pay it off in a year and with the current income that I have I didn't know how I would be able to.  Logistically it just didn't seem possible.  I sat there in my doubts when one of the gentlemen in the group said something that really moved me.  Something I've heard before, but is always good to hear again.  He spoke about how we need to come to God in prayer with a spirit of forcefulness, a spirit of knowing God can and will answer our prayers.  Something I wasn't seemingly able to do.  I just didn't know how God could make it happen.  But after these words of coming to God in this way, I started adjusting the tone of my prayers in my head.  Instead of prayers full of doubt they turned to prayers full of conviction and asking, knowing God would answer them in the way He felt best.
So I left feeling a little better, but still not knowing how God would choose to answer this prayer.  Then I got to work on Friday.  Come to find out Heather (the other girl who works there) is finally quitting! She was supposed to quit in September but she didn't and she was taking hours that I was supposed to be working.  I asked my boss again and again when her last day was and I believe it is this Thursday, which means next week I can start working at least 2 more days, if not 3.  This is such and blessing and an answer to prayer.  I hadn't asked that God would make her quit, I had simply asked that he would provide other ways of earning money and sure enough, He did.  What an awesome God we have. One step closer to paying off that debt of mine!

Here is a link to a song that Heath showed me that we have really enjoyed listening to.  It is called "How Many Kings" by Downhere.  Click here to listen to it!