Thankful Thursday - Jan. 22

"They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers." Acts 1:14 (NIV)

Lori over at Laurel Wreaths Reflections is hosting Thankful Thursday this week. Her post is excellent so you'll want to get over there to read it. You can also link your post there.

The theme is prayer and it's probably something I haven't done enough of lately. This week I was all pumped because I thought I had cinched an online editing job. I spent two long days researching and writing news stories for this company to review (they wanted six and in a very short amount of time) and, in spite of the interviewer's glowing praise about my stories being the best of all she'd received, and telling me that she was going to recommend they hire me, I failed to get the job. I got an e-mail very late last night informing me in one sentence, "You were not chosen." I don't know why, just that I wasn't chosen.

I've thought a lot about that word - chosen - today. When the Bible speaks of the saints being chosen, it's special. God calls us believers chosen, special, hand-picked by the God of the universe. Wow! When you realize that a completely sovereign God thinks us important enough to choose us - through salvation and repentance - you only have a glimpse as to how awesome He is and how awesome His grace is.

Even as I contemplate this afternoon of the greatness of God's offer of salvation to me, I think about my husband's upcoming hernia surgery. I think of another problem he saw the doctor about today and the cost of the prescriptions he has in at the drug store. I also think of the paycheck we get tomorrow - the lowest it's been in a long time (my hubby works on commission). I worry.

And in the midst of all of that I'm reminded of a quote I read this morning in Harvest, a book of testimonies of some Calvary Chapel pastors. Here's what Chuck Smith said after being elated when a friend called him and told him the church was sending him the exact amount of money he needed to pay his personal bills for the month. He'd just finished waltzing his wife around the kitchen, feeling pretty good that someone was stepping in with the exact amount of money he needed that month.

"Then He got me. He said, This morning when you got up, you couldn't sleep. You were moping around. Now you had My Word that I would supply your needs. And I didn't see you waltzing your wife around the kitchen. I didn't see you exuberant and praising Me. Now that you have gotten the word of man, you are all excited. Whose word do you really trust more?"

I'm thankful today for God's Word, the Holy Bible. Where do you think we'd be today without it? It is God's road map to Heaven.

I'm thankful that my family is safe. Yesterday a fatal accident occurred on the interstate on a stretch from our town to the next one south, a route we take very, very often.

Most of all, I'm grateful that I can go to my Lord in prayer and take my needs before Him. I have confidence in that He is more than able to move in my own situation. I know that my Redeemer lives and that He listens AND answers.