When you realize a prayer has been answered

So, last week, I told y’all about God answering a prayer within fifteen minutes.  Honestly, y’all, I’m still amazed by His goodness and His mercy.  When you realize a prayer has been answered, it gives me hope there will be answers to the bigger prayers, too.

Have you ever prayed about something, maybe even prayed about it several times, and didn’t even realize when the answer came?

Pleaseee tell me I’m not the only one with her eyes closed a time or two and missed an important answer?

I know.  You’re probably sitting there and asking me, “Cassie, how on earth do you miss something you’ve prayed for?“

I hear you asking, because it’s a question I had to ask myself, too.

And let me just tell you.

I heard the call

If you’ve been following my blog from its humble beginnings (I mean, who am I kidding, still at the beginning, but I’ve learned quite a bit since the very beginning), you may remember the header photo was a picture from my favorite fishing spot.  The tagline was “just a closer walk with thee.”  

When I finally gave in to God’s gentle push to start a blog, I settled on “just a closer walk with thee” as the tagline.  Truly, that’s what I want– a closer walk with the Good Lord.

Remember that meme floating around on Facebook that says something about how when the woman of God’s feet hit the floor in the morning, the Devil says something like “OH, shucks,  She’s up!”?

Y’all, that’s exactly how our walk with the Lord should be.  It should make the enemy tremble every time we’ve purposed in our heart to start the day following after God.  And it’s going to take a close walk with God for that to happen.

But, if you notice, “just a closer walk with thee” is no longer the tagline of my blog.  Instead, it’s “learning to be the light“.

The blogging journey

Like I said, I’ve learned a lot since the very first blog post.  In an effort to brand my blog so it would be more recognizable, I decided to change it up.   (Really, y’all, there are soooo many moving parts to a blog that I had no clue about when I hit the publish button for the first time.)

I’d be lying if I said I spent ages coming up with a new tagline.  I didn’t.  I’m not saying I didn’t think for days about changing the tagline, because I did.  But, to sit, make a list, and spend hours figuring out what fit the best?  No, I didn’t do that.  I considered what the new tagline would be for maybe half an hour tops when I finally decided to actually sit down and change it.  It didn’t take long at all to settle on “learning to be the light”.  It just felt right.  And it stuck.

I started blogging around January and made the tagline change a couple of months or so after that.  But, it really wasn’t until the summer when I was writing a post for Summer Overstreet’s blogiversary party that I realized just how significant the tagline really was.

It should make the enemy tremble every time we've purposed in our heart to start the day following after God. Click To Tweet

Learning to be the light

Friend, let me tell you something.  For years, starting when I was a teeny bopper, my heart’s cry was to simply (and I quote) “be a help to someone, to be a light to show others the way.”  I can’t tell you the number of times I prayed that prayer.  Or the number of tears that were shed.  It’s safe to say that prayer (that I continue to pray) is what many would consider “a big one”.

Imagine the light bulb that went off (no pun intended there) when I realized just how much the tagline, “learning to be the light”, really did fit.  What many would consider a hasty choice, actually ended up matching perfectly with what I had prayed about.

And I didn’t even realize it.

Friend, I have no idea if anyone gets anything out of these posts.  I truly don’t know if the words found on this blog light the path for someone to step out of the shadows and into the Light.  Or if anyone feels encouraged to listen to the leading of the Lord and do what He’s asked of them.  And I also don’t know if anyone else’s heart, other than my own, is touched, encouraged, or changed by something found here.  But, I do know that God called me to write and labor for this blog for a reason.  Somehow, someway there is a purpose behind it.  I may not see it.  I may not ever know it, and that’s perfectly okay.

A prayer has been answered

And maybe the prayers you’ve prayed about in your own life are just like this one?  Maybe you hoped for something completely different than what you actually received.   Or maybe you thought your “big prayers” would be answered in a way you had planned.   Friend, let me tell you, sometimes it doesn’t work according to our plan.  Sometimes we get so caught up in how our lives should go and spend so much time planning, that we completely miss what God has for us or what He’s purposed us to do.

I never thought I would be a blogger.  And I certainly never dreamed that I would be sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ through the written word, either.  But, here I am.  Learning to be the light in a different way than I imagined.

Shine bright, friend.