I like to do a little overview post after every 21 days of prayer as a round-up of the 3 weeks I spent intentionally seeking God.
I know “fasting” has a lot of misunderstanding surrounding it. The best way it’s been described to me is that fasting something is pushing it aside to simplify our lives, quiet the noise and provide space for God to speak.
That being said, I fasted scrolling on social media (I still posted), Netflix and sweets.
Towards the end of December, as I was preparing my heart for 21 Days of Prayer + Fasting, I had a similar feeling that I had last year and recognized it immediately. Something big was about to happen. And by “big,” I mean something that would change our family’s rhythm. Aaron and I had been asking God to bring Aaron a job, so I thought it had something to do with that.
But as our first week was all about intentionally seeking God and His Kingdom, I quickly surrendered the feeling and decided to sit and wait with expectancy. The prayer services were incredible as always and at the last prayer service of the week that the Holy Spirit told me, “you’re going to get this house.” We hadn’t seen it yet, but we had an appointment to look at it after prayer. I kept this to myself, not sure if it was a random thought of my own or truly from the Holy Spirit. We saw the house an hour later, fell in love with it, submitted an offer the following evening and exactly 48 hours from the Holy Spirit speaking that to me, we got an email saying they accepted our offer and we could begin the process of making our home.
BOOM – I’d say that was the big thing that would adjust our family’s rhythm.
The second week we sought God’s desires for our lives, and I cannot think of a better way than to continually surrender this moving process to him. We also requested wisdom for multiple other areas of our life including raising our family, our calling (individually and as a couple/family), business endeavors, job opportunities, and more.
By the third week our church led us to pray for others, and I found a fire being fanned in my heart for children and families.
Throughout all 21 days, I grew extremely close to a woman at my church that I now consider a very dear friend. She has been someone I have asked for prayer from, sought encouragement and wisdom and have had great life conversations with as we both navigate young children and similar family styles/life situations.
Although most of my free time has been consumed with the moving process, I have found that reading has bought my soul so much rest and peace. Not just listening to books, but actually picking up the paper and turning pages. I found it so beneficial for my life that I actually made it apart of my 5 for the year.
Since the daily prayer services have ended, I have found myself turning to old notes and re-watching prayer services. I love the realignment it brings and I’m so thankful that I committed the first of my year to the Lord.
For all the crazy goodness God brought us just within those 21 days, I know there are some fantastic things ahead.