Not Even If I Tried

Okay, I couldn't make this story up if I tried, so here goes. A few weeks ago I challenged the teens of UNINTIMIDATED to ask God to show them for themselves that His hand was in this journey. Two of my girls took up the challenge and asked God to show them something they needed to specifically pray over for Tebow. The next morning, both girls heard/read news about Tebow's new girlfriend. This was cause for some concern as the girl Tebow was dating did not appear to be saved. This was upsetting to the girls, but at least they had something to pray over. I admit, it had me concerned too and quite honestly I speculated a bit in my prayers. I know these girls, and I can almost guarantee you they have been praying for Tebow's wisdom in dating this actress and for God to intervene if she wasn't right for him, in my prayers however, I think I judged a little and assumed some.
     It strikes me as odd that Tebow has had very little success in New York, he has not been the savior of their team as he was Denver, not much chance to talk about his faith. As a matter of fact, he has been given very few opportunities to play and the one game where Sanchez was benched, Tebow was inactive due to broken ribs. Yesterday, Sanchez lost the starting job and Tebow was passed up as starter for third-stringer McElroy.
     Ironically, according to the news, Tebow has been interested in this girl since arriving in New York and began officially dating her just a few weeks ago. It seemed to me that God was letting Tebow know that dating an unsaved person was definitely not in His plan for his life. Now, the Holy Spirit convicted me over that, let me know I wasn't Him and didn't know all the details. This could be a time of testing for Tebow for all I knew. So I did modify my prayers. I did sincerely attempt to keep my speculation and opinion out of my prayers, but my thoughts kept coming back to it, perhaps it was the Holy Spirit guiding my prayer, I don't know. What I do know is that I prayed for God to give Tebow wisdom in dating her, that if she was going to pull his heart and focus away from God, that He would intervene and take her out of Tebow's life.
     Today, there have been numerous articles on Tebow (which now that I think about it, I did ask God to move specifically in Tebow's life today and apparently He did). Just as I was about to log off, I was scrolling through the news feed and a new article had been posted. Now hold on to your seats here cause this is pretty astounding...Tebow broke up with his girlfriend. HE broke up with her, not the other way around.
     I just laughed when I saw the article, could God be any plainer, any more direct in His answer? This is crazy...and awesome...and amazing...and well, I'm out of adjectives, but tell me, just how marvelous is our God? (oh, guess I came up with one more adjective after all)

For Themselves

Last week as I was praying, I realized that so much of what my kids are holding to is my faith and my belief that God is going to answer this request. This is not a bad thing necessarily. For the ones who are new to this, it's probably what they need for now, but for the ones who have been at this for awhile, they need some ownership in this prayer, they need to see God work in this for themselves. I began to pray that God would give at least the original seven a heart and a burden for this request; that they would take up a leadership role in this group. From that prayer, God lead me to challenge the teens to try Him and prove for themselves His hand was in this.
     So I did. I challenged them to ask God to do something specific over the next week to help them see for themselves, directly from God that this was His will. I told them if they weren't sure what to ask, to let God know that and give Him a chance to show what they should be asking for. First thing this morning, one of my girls told me she had been asking God what she should be praying for Tebow and would He please show her. On her way to school she heard a news piece about the girl he is currently dating, one that doesn't appear to be saved. She was excited because God showed her she needed to pray for Tebow's wisdom as he pursued this relationship.  Another girl told me virtually the same story at lunch. She was frustrated because she felt her prayers were becoming repetitious and she wanted to know specifically how she needed to pray. She, too, heard a news story about him on the way to school.
     Both girls were so excited to share and to see for themselves that God not only heard, but so quickly answered their prayer. This is really what this journey has been about, getting them to see and experience the power of prayer, to attempt impossible things that only God can answer and then expect Him to answer. I think tonight, at least two of the fourteen have definitely seen that for themselves, and prayerfully, twelve more will before Friday.

Sometimes, They're More Than Just Rewards

This past week has been AMAZING for UNINTIMIDATED. God has worked so greatly in two very specific areas. One I shared earlier, that God had sent someone, for at least a day, to pray with Tebow over our request. The other came Friday, when 12 kids showed up at 2:45 to pray for UNINTIMIDATED, many of whom I had prayed specifically that God would work in their hearts to bring them in. Our prayer group has doubled the number of teens alone that are now a part of this...fourteen teenagers are now committed to pray on a daily basis for Tim Tebow. I am so excited to see how God will now work, and the change something like this will bring to our high school.
     This working of God did not go unnoticed by Satan. As you can imagine, he went on the attack. Something very minor happened at school on Wednesday, but apparently it was just bad timing, because I cried, rather hard, for the rest of the day. I felt so miserable about it, I almost didn't go to church. A few hours before services began the Holy Spirit asked me if I was going to let Satan win this way, one day after God had so directly answered a prayer. So I went to church and of course it helped, mostly. On the way home, I didn't really want to pray about Tebow or our request, so I determined to just go home and go to bed. The Holy Spirit then asked me if I would really not pray in a week where I was asking God to speak to numerous teens about UNINTIMIDATED. He then reminded me that that very day, two teens had committed and would be joining us on Friday. So I prayed. Thursday as I was driving to school, I stopped at a store and realized my tire was flat...yes ANOTHER tire, that makes three if you're counting...and I am. :) I called a friend to pick me up, got my shopping done and went to school, completely unruffled. Things didn't quite go as planned and my car didn't get fixed, but Safeway was amazing and told me not to worry about having my car towed. I did manage to get it fixed Friday afternoon, after a few snags, for a really decent price, after twelve teens showed up to pray.
     It was really hard to get anxious or upset. God had sent so many blessings into my life this week that they were my focus. When I did get upset, God reminded me of the blessings He had already sent.  Blessings are amazing, and sometimes God send them to us as more than a reward for obedient living. Sometimes, they are reminders and sometimes they are distractors so we stay focused on Him and not on what Satan is trying to do around us.
     I always try to be thankful for the things God does for me, but this week, there's just a bit more gratefulness for what God did because for once in what seems a very long time, Satan didn't win a battle he usually does...and all because God sent the blessings first.

Almost, Nearly...But Not Quite

This has been an exciting week for UNINTIMIDATED. As of tonight, God has brought two more students into the prayer group. The stories of how each of the kids knew this was something God wanted them to do are pretty amazing. God has been so direct in leading them into this and they're so excited to share what God showed them; and they are so amazed at how He made it so clear to them. In their words, "it's so cool how God did that." Yes, it is so very cool how God did that.
     Just a few minutes ago I received a text from one of my girls showing me their Bible verse for the week. It is the passage in Ecclesiastes 5 that deals with making vows and what God expects. She was so excited to show me that verse. I mentioned to her it seemed as if God was speaking to some of the students in her Bible class about joining while reminding others of the commitment they made back in March. She said this verse has reminded her all week to pray. She then sent another message that made my heart rejoice...she's excited about tomorrow...the day UNINTIMIDATED meets to pray together. Teens excited about getting together and praying, yes, God, very cool indeed.
    Then there are two teen boys in my homeroom who, well, I think kind of missed the boat by a few inches. I shared with them on Tuesday about God sending someone to Tebow to pray with him. This apparently motivated two of my students to begin a prayer campaign of their own, a good thing, right? So that morning during devotions, one of them requested that he and his friend get to meet someone. The boy is sometimes difficult to understand, so I thought he meant Tebow. As we bowed our heads to pray, I heard one of his classmates comment on the fact that the 'someone' was his favorite rock band. The next day, the boy again requests prayer, but this time it's an unspoken. I told him I was not going to pray that God allows him to meet someone who isn't saved and lives a life contrary to God, he said okay. Today, he once again requests prayer for an unspoken request. I asked him if it was rock star I was praying for him to meet and he assured me it wasn't. One of his classmates said no, it's now Arnold Schwarzenegger. Really?! I'm not sure how to take that. On the one hand, the boy believes God can do it and is praying for it to be done. He took Matthew 18:19 literally and got his friend to pray with him...that's two agreeing in prayer, but he's praying for things that don't really honor God. I find it humorous, but realize I may need to do a better job explaining why Tebow and how it all came about and what God taught me about that verse. But still, a student taking God at His Word and beginning a prayer campaign all on his own...that we can work with and hopefully direct down a right path.
      So yes, it has been an exciting week of seeing God work in the life of my teen-agers. It's exciting to see that most of them are heading in the right direction and a few are almost, nearly there, but not quite...yet. 

A Few of My Favorite Things

I have truly enjoyed chronicling this amazing journey...GREAT idea, Stephanie. I love to go back, especially to the earlier ones and remind myself of all God has done in this prayer. I also like to remind myself of the lessons learned along the way in hopes that for some at least, I don't have to re-learn them. I love sharing the things God has shown. I love how much my prayer life as evolved as a result of this. I love being able to see the pretty amazing ways God has come through on many of my prayers.
     The blogs I most love re-reading, and writing, are the ones the tell of the utterly amazing things God does in and through this prayer...and I would have to say, this blog ranks up there with some of my favorite moments. Recently, I have begun to pray that each day God creates a specific circumstance in which He burdens Tebow with a desire to meet my kids. I have asked for things like God giving him an unexpected amount of free time during the day and in that time, He work on Tebow's heart over this request. I have asked that in the quiet times during his day, the times he is all alone, that God heavily burden his heart to pray over this. I've never asked God for a sign or indication in any way as confirmation, so I have to trust that God is doing this. Last night, as I was praying, I wasn't sure what to ask God allow to happen to draw Tebow's attention to this request. So, I asked God what to ask for. He then put it in my heart to ask that someone come to Tebow and tell him that they wanted to pray with him, that they felt there was something God wanted Tebow to do. At first, I thought, okay God, is this real? I then asked God if He would be gracious enough to put an article on MSN if and only if this particular prayer was answered today. It then occurred to me that by the time I get up, Tebow is half way through his day (he's five time zones ahead of me, I'm not that lazy :]) and God may have already answered it. So I promised God I wouldn't check my MSN page until 6:45, right before I leave for work. So, promptly at 6:45 I get onto MSN. Now, I do have to admit, I was a little fearful; afraid, maybe an article wouldn't be there. I comforted myself with the idea that God didn't have to answer right then, He could answer at any time during the day.
     I am so glad God is SO gracious and merciful to me because, first thing this morning, as I slowly scrolled down all the headlines, under the sports section, there it was...my Tebow article! Now of course, Satan jumped in with, "it's virtually the same article as yesterday, basically all they did was add a video", and I almost bought it. Then I realized, God would have caused it to be taken down if He hadn't already brought that person to pray with Tebow. As a matter of fact, when I got to school and checked again, the article was gone. Isn't God absolutely amazing?! If ever I needed proof that God hears prayer and will answer even very specific ones, this is it.
    So first, Stephanie heard via several texts, then my homeroom heard and my Algebra II class heard as well and now you too have heard what an amazing and powerful and caring and gracious God we serve. Can't say thank You or praise You enough so as you lift up this prayer, add your praise and thanks to this, because God is working in some pretty direct and spectacular ways.

He Gave Them A Heart

In my devotions I have been reading through Ezra. Many times the Bible mentions that God gave the Persian kings a heart to let the Israelites return from captivity and begin rebuilding the Temple. It also mentions on several occasions that He gave them a heart to provide gold, silver, bronze, oil, wine, etc...for the Israelites as they returned home and began rebuilding the Temple.
     One request I make often of God concerning Tebow is that God lay a heavy burden on his heart to meet my students and that He put a desire in Tebow's heart to answer our request once he is aware of it. I ask God to let meeting Tebow be at no expense to the kids, even if they get to travel to meet him (because, yes, I do pray they get to go to New York to meet him). As I read once again this morning of God putting it in the kings' hearts to allow the captives to return and rebuild, and not only returning and rebuilding, but also giving provisions for it, I realized God can and will not only move in Tebow's heart to meet my kids, but also will provide a way for that to happen at no expense to the kids. After all, these kings were not God's own children and they fulfilled His plan, how much more can God do through one that belongs to Him?
     This request and all that has come about from it has definitely been God's plan. God will always make a way for His plans to be fulfilled. Burdening Tebow's heart and giving him a desire to fulfill the request is something God can and will do. I don't have to be concerned about that, God will give Tebow a heart to meet my kids and a heart to make it happen in whatever way God is planning.



    

"Put Me In Coach"

We've all heard stories of the little guy who wants to play in a game and begs his coach to put him in, assuring his coach that he can play. And often, the story ends with a reluctant coach finally putting that little guy in in the final minutes and winning a game because of it.
    God has been working on me over a situation for many days and tonight I was reminded of those types of stories as I read through II Chronicles 24. The king had commanded the Levites to go throughout the nation and collect money and gifts for repairs on the Temple. The Levites were slow to act because they really didn't think the people would give. They underestimated what the people could do and how willing they would be to do something for God.
     God has been working on me for the past several days about opening UNINTIMIDATED up to our entire high school. I've been hesitant because I don't want them to enter into this lightly. I want them to understand the commitment they are making in becoming a prayer warrior and praying for a chance to meet Tebow. Honestly, I've avoided it too, because I don't see any of them wanting to commit. But that would be me making that decision for them, just as the Levites made the decision for the Israelites. I have no idea who, if any of them, would want to join, but none of them will if I don't give them the chance. I am avoiding this because I don't think they'll join, I am underestimating what they want to do for God.
     When the Levites did finally go and make the collections they were surprised at the amount of gifts and money the people gave. The Bible says the collection boxes overflowed with money and gifts, that there was surplus money to do even more than planned for. I feel this is God telling me to go ahead and open it up and let His power overflow this request. Perhaps more than I think will take up the challenge of becoming a prayer warrior and experience all that we have in their own walks with God. And as God also pointed out that the Levites slowness in acting was the same thing as disobedience, I guess I'll bring this up in my high school classes tomorrow.
     Sometimes, the story of that little guy ends with the coach not putting him in. That coach will never know what kind of difference the little guy could have made because he never gave him a chance. I don't want to be in that position, of not knowing what could have been, of missing out on meeting Tebow because I didn't offer the chance to someone to join in . I will offer them that chance and leave their hearts and their responses up to God and hopefully, I will be as surprised at who joins as the Levites were at the amounts given..