Last week we shared Psalm 46 and talked about taking time to be still and reflect on the Lord. Although it seems so easy to just set aside a little time each day to rest in the Lord, all of us know from experience that it is actually really difficult to stop what we’re doing—stuff that we feel needs to happen now—and reflect on God.
The world of foster care is constantly shifting. There are placements, court dates, home visits, phone calls, conferences, etc. each day that must be done. The busyness we experience here at the office is good because it means that children are being removed from abuse and neglect and placed in safe, loving homes—we rejoice in the busyness! But we know that even with all the work that has to be done each day, we need to make sure that God is coming first, not our daily work checklist.
Our Wednesday morning prayer time is kind of like a weekly reset for us staff members. Coming together as team to praise the Lord and lift up prayer requests is such a powerful reminder that God is in control of everything and that He already knows the outcome of each situation.
This morning was such a sweet time of prayer as we praised the Lord and for all He is doing in the world of foster care and asked Him to continue working in the lives of the children we place. We want to share a few of the prayers and praises from this morning:
We praised the Lord for several cases that appear to be moving towards adoption! It is heartbreaking that a child would ever have suffer abuse and neglect at the hands of a parent—the person who should care for and love their children unconditionally. We always pray that the Lord will move in the hearts and lives of the biological families and make it so that the child can return to a safe, healed biological family. But in cases where it becomes clear that the child cannot return home, we give thanks that the Lord creates new families—safe, loving forever families rooted in their faith Him.
We devoted a portion of our prayer time to asking the Lord to make the hidden things plainly seen and to bring the darkness to light. We know the world is fallen and sinful, but some days the circumstances surrounding the removal of a child remind us how broken this world truly is. As humans, there is only so much we can know or do to stop the abuse of children; we can’t be in every place at once and we can’t know or see all the situations in which abuse could happen. We prayed that God would make His truth known in each and every case and that the darkness and deceit of the enemy would be pushed back and replaced with God’s truth and protection for each child who has suffered abuse.
We also lifted up those suffering from any kind of illness whether it was the flu or cancer. Many of our families were hit with the flu in the past couple of weeks, but among the staff members many of our friends and families are suffering from some form of cancer. For the past few weeks, we have been lifting up our families and friends to the Lord for healing and comfort. We know that the Lord is the Great Physician, so we asked that He will continue to heal those who are recovering and that He will work a miracle in the lives of those who human physicians cannot heal.
“Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” — Matthew 11:28-29