As I mentioned yesterday, the lessons that have been learned these past 4 weeks have not been anything that I expected. I found myself last night feeling lost and really wishing we were back home. Writing in my journal has always been an outlet of mine. I confessed my disillusionment to the Lord and asked for His wisdom and guidance. This morning He answered my prayer! I love how He answers when we call!

I pray the following prayer and Scripture verses encourage you as much as they encouraged me!

◊ My Prayer to God ◊

Lord, I thank You that You have called me with a holy calling, not according to my works, but according to Your purpose and grace which was given to me in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 1:9). I know that Your plan for me existed before I knew You, and You will bring it to pass. Help me to “walk worthy of the calling with which [I was] called” (Ephesians 4:1).  I know there is an appointed plan for me, and I have a destiny that will now be fulfilled.

Help me to live my life with a sense of purpose and understanding of the calling You have given me. I lay down all pride, selfishness, and anything else that would keep me from moving into all You have for me. I don’t want to miss out on Your full purpose for my life because I did not walk the way You wanted me to. I repent of every day I haven’t fully lived for You. Help me to live the way You want me to from now on.

Lord, help me to understand the call You have on my life. Take away any discouragement I may feel and replace it with joyful anticipation of what You are going to do through me. Use me as Your instrument to make a positive difference in the lives of those whom You put in my path. Help me to rest in the confidence of knowing that Your timing is perfect. I know that whatever You have called me to do, You will enable me to do it.

I pray that nothing will draw me away from fulfilling the plan You have for me. May I never stray from what You have called me to be and do. Give me a vision for my life and a strong sense of purpose. I put my identity in You and my destiny in Your hands. Show me if what I am doing now is what I am supposed to be doing. I want what You are building in my life to last for eternity. I don’t want to waste time going after things that are not what You have for me. Help me to be content where I am, knowing You won’t leave me there forever.

Lord, I know that “all things work together for good” to those who love You and are called according to Your purpose (Romans 8:28). I don’t want to presume that I know what that purpose is. Nor do I want to spend a lifetime trying to figure out what I am supposed to be doing and miss the mark. So I pray that You would show me clearly what the gifts and talents are that You have placed in me. Lead me in the way I should go as I grow in them. Enable me to use them according to Your will and for Your glory.

◊ God’s Promises to Me ◊

Walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Ephesians 4:1-3

Be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble.
2 Peter 1:10

You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
1 Peter 2:9

In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.
Ephesians 1:11-12

Whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
Romans 8:30

– Excerpts from The Power of a Praying Woman