Moving mountains in the morning

Hi friends! We have a guest writer on the blog today, and she is my dear friend, Ginny. I’ve known Ginny for almost eight years now, and our friendship has been built through much time spent in prayer and God’s Word together. She is a wife, mommy of three little ones, a devoted friend, and a faithful pursuer after Jesus Christ. She wrote this a few months ago, and I thought today was the perfect time to share her words with you. To all those who struggle to find the time to sit at the feet of Jesus: On moving mountains…

Ladies, have you ever marveled at the amazing amount of things that you can accomplish in the early morning hours, before the world is truly awake, and especially before any children that live with you are awake?  Today I had such a morning and I had to share it with you!  I believe with all my heart that none of you will laugh or mock me when I say that the greatest accomplishment of my morning was sitting down.  I feel silly writing it, but a more simple truth I could not write. I imagine that each of you know the discipline that is required to ignore the dirty kitchen, piles of laundry, homework or work assignments left undone the night before, the good book you can hardly put down once you pick it up, or the updates on Facebook that surely occurred after you went to sleep last night and instead go straight to the Lord, opening His word and turning your thoughts and feelings into prayer and conversation with Him.
So this morning, after I accomplished this first amazing feat of sitting down, complete with my cup of coffee steaming within reach, I proceeded to move a mountain. I took a mountain, and I threw it into the sea without muscle or movement, all from the comfort of my sofa. I did it with my faith alone and the strength of the Lord Jesus which resides deep in me, to be drawn on and breathed out when I simply cannot do it on my own. I reached down into my heart and started talking to the Lord. My spirit sang and soared as can only happen when the very presence of the Lord is near. Within thirty seconds, I was overwhelmed and weeping with relief to be with Him, my Father who loves and hears me, who “chose me before the foundation of the world.” You may guess from my use of these words, which are from Ephesians 1, that I have been diving into Cherie’s new study “Awake, O Sleeper.” I have just started it and oh my, how alive the word has been to me, especially today! But that is a whole other story….
So this morning, my prayers were focused on a young friend of mine who is right this very minute in the middle of a very intense black-belt karate exam which is an all-day event with multiple physical and mental challenges. She started the day throwing up from seriously bad nerves, a weakness in her that she only recently discovered… sadly on the night of her Homecoming when she was so excited and nervous about her date for the event that she could not contain her stomach long enough to enjoy the night. She and I have been training for this grueling exam for close to six months, but because we didn’t realize the power of her worry and stress and the impact on her body, we neglected to adequately prepare her mind as we did her physical strength. So when the stress started to rear its ugly head a couple days ago, I scrambled to equip her with portions of God’s word that would show her how she could rely on God’s strength and not her own to get her through.  
She is a new and young believer without God’s word yet written on her heart, and I was disappointed in myself for not being on task to invite and challenge her to begin acquiring such power sooner even as we both increased the number of our pull-up and push-up repetitions. But being frustrated with myself was not going to help her this morning as I sent her off to the exam equipped with sandwiches and snacks that I am not sure she will be able to eat and a well-lined trash can by her side. So into prayer I dove, to intercede on her behalf and ask our great God Almighty to send her the strength and power and healing that she needs.
I went a step further and texted my prayer team to ask them to also pray for her. Words cannot adequately express the love and affection I have for this group of women, one whom I have never even met because she lives far away, and others that I only see once in a while, but all who I can rely on without a doubt to walk through fire and need and despair with me.  If you have not such a friend, find one! I know that God hears every prayer that we utter…whether we whimper, shout or murmur to ourselves, but I believe that the resounding echoes of our prayer partners, when they pray along with us, causes the walls of God’s throne room to shake. And for me, praying with others gives me even more opportunities to continue my prayers throughout the day, long after I might otherwise set them aside and move on to tackle those duties that I am able to ignore in the early hours of the morning.  
As I prayed and received confirmation from my prayer partners that they were also praying, I felt the strength of those mountain-moving prayers and I felt them being heard. God moved in my soul in such a way that a warm glow has surrounded me all morning. I couldn’t let the good time with Him end, so I confess I have let the cartoons babysit the kids this morning as I took time to share my story with you and listen to music that praises the great mystery of His power and love for us. I have texted my friend a couple times to let her know I am praying and so far, she has not called me to pick her up and take her home, which I take as a sign that she is persevering. She may not pass the exam, but suddenly I see the challenge of this day as granting her access to something even bigger and better than her black belt… an opportunity and reason for her to investigate the power of prayer and knowledge of God’s strength and healing for those of us who ask for it and believe in it. We can truly move mountains.