Prayer and glory in the mistakes

Recently I was privileged to share with about fifty women what God has been teaching me lately about prayer. I spent a lot of time ahead of time praying about what I would say and for the women who would attend. When it came time to speak, I realized there were many details that I hadn’t thought to pray about and that I just trusted would fall into place. You know how there are so many details that you don’t really think about unless they are not going the way you want? Those were the kind of things that quickly became noticeable.

I had prepared my talk using overheads and had notes prepared with blanks for the women to fill in emphasizing key thoughts. However, when I got to the room, the overhead projector that I had been assured would be there was not. My notes which had been printed and I was assured would be there in plenty of time were nowhere to be found. Once I began speaking, my throat became very, very dry, I began to cough, and could hardly talk. At first I thought, "I knew it! I shouldn’t have trusted people to bring things for me, and I probably shouldn’t even be speaking here today anyway." It took no time at all for God to remind me that I am part of a body of believers and just as I need to do my job, I need to allow others to do theirs, even if they don’t do it the way I want them to. It was like God said to me, "This isn’t about you and your ‘beautifully’ prepared presentation anyway. I knew this was going to happen, and I still called you to speak here today. Don’t let this stop you. Just go do it." I took a brief moment to pray and recommit my lesson to God regardless of if it went the way I had planned, then I entered the room and began. As soon as I finished the opening prayer, someone came along with my hand-outs. I never did get my overhead projector, but I realized that even though I think it would have been helpful, perhaps it was just as well that I did not have it. One kind lady slipped out and returned with a glass of water and hard candy for me, while another retrieved two cough drops from her purse, clearing my throat enough for me to speak.

Things may not have gone as I had planned, which especially since I haven’t done much public teaching since my children were born, threw me for a loop. I had prepared my best though, and God worked through it to accomplish what He had planned. Afterwards several ladies spoke to me about how they had been challenged, some asking questions which indicated that God was really working in their lives and on their prayer lives. My prayer is that God will use this little talk to build up mighty prayer warriors and to begin a revival in my community.

As long as I have the notes written out, I thought I might share here what I shared there as well, so over the next week, I will feature a series on what God has been teaching me about prayer.