Monday, September 21, 2009

Prayer and things

There's a prayer meeting I really wish I could have attended.

Imagine the setting - four young men, faced with a cruel death. They are innocent of any crime, but it makes no difference.

But wait - there is hope! If one of their number can come up with certain information, their lives might be spared. It is information that is impossible for any human being to know on his own. Only God can reveal the knowledge. Their lives hang on whether He will see fit to reveal this information to them.

Talk about getting serious about prayer. These four young men have impeccable character. They are good young men. They are smart as whips, as the saying goes. They are good-looking. They are pleasant. Most importantly, they love God with all their hearts, and they know how to pray. Can you imagine their prayers that night?

I can picture four manly heads bowed in deep concentration. I can hear earnest voices pleading. I can see candlelight reflecting in tears that stream down bronzed faces. I can see these four men kneeling together on the floor of their room.

And they get their answer. God grants them that which they have asked of him. I love that. He is so good.

Don't you wish you could have met Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah? I do. They must have been amazing folk.

Can you tell I'm reading through the book of Daniel in my devotions? I'm also reading through a commentary of the book of Daniel, by John F. Walvoord. It's very good.

To tell the truth, however, I'm not getting as much reading done as I would like. I'm not getting much of anything done. I'm spending more time sleeping than anything else. You know that "swine flu" that has been so talked about? It appears it has decided to pay our family a visit.

Of course, we're not positive that's what we have. However, according to my research (yes I do these kinds of things when I'm sick in bed - that's the nice thing about laptops) the difference between regular flu and swine flu is that swine flu affects the stomach, which ordinary "seasonal" flu doesn't normally do. And stomachs have definitely been affected in our house.

Other symptoms include body aches, cough, runny nose, fatigue, inflamed lungs, and fever.

But enough. Who wants to hear about such things?

I'm not sure how to end this post. I'm not thinking very straight today. But I have a few post ideas floating around, so I think you'll hear from me soon.

6 comments:

Amanda said...

Oh, dear!! I hope you all get over it very soon! Sickness, especially in a large family, is not pleasant!
And about that prayer meeting: I think you have a gift for putting Bible stories into real-life settings, making them more "real" to people like... me! :) That's a great story anyway, and you made it come alive - thank you!

Amber said...

Thanks so much, Amanda! I love writing about Bible accounts perhaps more than any other kind of writing that I do. I'll be sitting there, reading the Bible or listening to a sermon, and suddenly everything becomes living, breathing, vividly REAL....then I just HAVE to write it down. I always hope that my readers will catch what I felt myself, and when they seem to, it makes me so happy I can't describe it. :) :)

...So...thanks. :) :) Thanks for the well-wishes, too. Everyone else in the family seems to be recovering, except for Tiffany and Lezley, who have come down with hard colds. Ah, well, God knows how much sickness one family can take...which I'm thankful for. It's a comfort to know He knows everything that's going on in this little house. :) :)

Melanie said...

Dear Amber (a.k.a. AStitchinGal ;-) ),

This is Melanie from the forum. Your blog is lovely, and I can't wait to browse it some more and read what you have written!

You portrayed the account of Daniel so beautifully. You made it come alive! Oh to have the boldness and the fervency of those four young men!

I am sorry your family has the swine flu. Our family suffered from that this last March; it was TERRIBLE! (We didn't know it was swine flu until Mommy looked up the symptoms this last week and they were all exactly what you wrote!) It was terrible. We were down for a long time, every last one of us!

But God brought us through. :-) I hope you all get back to normal soon. :-)

God bless you!

Love in Him,
Melanie A.

Amber said...

Thank you for stopping by, Melanie, and for the well-wishes. :) It's so nice to hear from you again!!! :) :) I hope you do enjoy your visits here.

I think we are finally back to "normal" around here - praise the Lord! I'm sorry your family had to go through that kind of thing too, but I guess you know how lovely it is to have everyone up and around again, hmm? :)

Thanks again for visiting. God Bless!

Amanda said...

Hi, Amber! This is Melanie's sister Amanda (aka, Rosebud ;)). She directed me to your blog and I've been looking over it; I really like it! :)

This post about Daniel was really good--you've got a great style of writing!

Ahem, as Melanie already said, we had the swine flue in February...I didn't know that until last week, though, so it kind of caught me funny. :) I hope you and yours are doing better!

Amber said...

Hello, Rosebud, and welcome, welcome, welcome! I've enjoyed getting to know your sweet sister, and I'm SO glad you've decided to come visit too!!!