If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

John 15:7 ESV

I don’t often pray for something specific like the story I am about to tell. I don’t want to play God and decide what’s best. I want to leave that to Him. Usually, I pray more make-me-like-Jesus things. And He is so faithful to answer. I am continually realizing how He has answered or is answering prayer. Those prayers sometimes come with a pruning. That pruning and the cutting away are the same exact action and have the same result, death. The pruning is the cutting away to put to death what wasn’t of Christ. The difference is that our real self is still attached to the Vine because we belong to Him. It causes new life growth and that thing that felt like death at the moment becomes a great blessing. Give thanks in all circumstances!

The specific prayer was for the Lord to get us out of Turkey one August. I wanted a break from the heat. The Lord had convicted us years earlier and we had stopped planning and taking vacations. I said the Lord would have to move someone to offer us a place. Someone we never saw before or after (w/o me saying a word) offered us freely their home in Finland for the month of August. 🙂