Friday, August 10, 2007:

The Hope Journal

This morning’s reading was John 12, and the Lord gave me this scripture:

"Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!" Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and will glorify it again."

God continues to glorify His name every time we speak about His faithfulness in our lives!

I wasn’t feeling great—tired, PMSing, and dealing with cramps—so I decided to stay home from our home group meeting. Earlier, I had asked Tom to get CT’s car washed before we returned it. When she found out we’d arranged to rent a car, she offered to let us swap cars instead, as she just needed "Big Blue" to go to the beach. We also wanted to return her car with a full tank of gas, so Tom planned to combine fueling up with washing the car.

Tom wanted to take a nap before the meeting, but when he woke up, he decided not to go and instead asked me to join him in dropping the car off. It was late when we left, and I suspected the car wash would be closed. I felt frustrated that it hadn’t been handled earlier but prayed for God to help me stay calm. We searched for a gas station with a quick car wash but couldn’t find one, so we simply filled the tank and cleaned the windows.

When we got to CT’s place, I mentioned washing the windows, and she responded, “Oh, you didn’t have to do that!” It was then I realized she would’ve been upset if we’d spent money on a full car wash.

We stayed for about 45 minutes, sharing updates about how God is sustaining us (based on Tom’s scripture from earlier). It was a powerful moment filled with God’s presence. His name was glorified!

By then, it was 7:30, and we were hungry, so we went to a nearby Mexican restaurant. During dinner, I felt God telling me we needed to go to home group after all, specifically to pray for BY. (We’d received an email from him earlier in the day asking for prayer.) When I mentioned it to Tom, he said, “I knew that, but I was waiting for God to tell you.”

So, we went to home group. Only one other couple was there, which gave us a chance to share once more about God’s faithfulness in our lives. We also prayed for BY. Yet again, His name was glorified!