He Hears Us...

pic from http://www.flickriver.com/photos/christianmontone/4000690499/

Have you ever prayed "against" or in opposition of something? This may be a concept you've not thought of before, although I bet you pray against more things than you realize. I do tread lightly with these types of prayers so let me give you an example.

A few months ago, a new billboard picture popped up in a small town I pass through on my way to work. I think it advertises a clothing line? Anyway, the reason I don't really know what it advertises is because all it shows is a woman with her clothes on but in a very seductive sexual position. My first thought was 'whoa' and I turned my eyes away. You see, I'm a single Christian gal and I don't want or need extra visuals in my head to cause me to struggle with my purity! Most days I'm very disciplined and don't look, sometimes I forget it's there and I happen to notice it then I have to look away again. Arg! I was getting very frustrated so I started talking to God about it.

As I prayed, I remembered that about nine years ago almost the same thing happened. I lived in a different area, drove to a different job but on my way to work there was this stupid billboard advertising for a "gentleman's club" and it use to make me struggle. Back then, I began praying to God against that billboard...that it would be changed, that it would get destroyed somehow...anything...because it was not only making His little one struggle but because satan would use it to draw in others. A few weeks later it was gone!

So I began praying 'against' this new billboard that has been a small thorn in my walk with Him lately. And guess what...this morning it is changed! Now the woman is more of a ballerina type. *celebration!*

Isn't God wonderful?! I so appreciate that He took care of it! It's such a small item in the grand scheme of things. If God hadn't changed it then I would have just kept on doing those things I needed to keep doing because I know that God won't do all the work for us - we have to be disciplined, diligent, and have convictions. Still.. I wanted to spend time praising Him for it anyway! His little reminder to me that He hears us...that He does protect us and that God is on our side. Yay! My heart is lifted!

John 17:14-16 (NIV) Jesus' prayer:

"I [Jesus] have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it."

1 John 5:14
"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us."