I’ve come across a great website Like a Warm Cup of Coffee . There, Sarah Mae has a weekly women’s group called Motivate Me Mondays — where you can post, encourage, be encouraged, bless, be a blessing by answering a spiritually reflecting question. (If you want to join in/get the button, go to her website).

When has there been a time where you felt weak (and maybe your prayers weren’t being answered) but where you saw God ultimately use His strength through your weakness (or maybe you didn’t see it, but you trusted)?

So here is my answer:

This question is timely — seems to be in our household a lot this week! And just recently — within this month, I really saw God work and answer a prayer that I had….This is the first winter in our house (we moved a little under a year ago and so hadn’t faced the Ontario weather and subsequent heating bills for a big house for 2 ppl — side note: we were anticipating large family gatherings and making a lot of little babies! ) Anyhow, January was cold. Very cold. And I have 50% Caribbean blood — so I am always cold — even in 70 degree weather! So with all the holiday gatherings in November and December and my constant complaining need desire to have the house under my standards of comfort—my husband reluctantly turned the heat therm up a few notches. Well, you know how in January you get the “post-shopping Christmas bill” and if you are in the States, you can start filing your taxes and know how much you owe? Well, we got our post-holiday heating bill for our 2600 sq ft house…and boy was it a shocker! About $400 of a shocker! Well, needless to say, the therm was shut off, the mission was to wear as much clothing as possible, warm our hands by a little portable heater and pretty much stay in one room 7 days a week — barely coming out to make a quick lunch or use the washroom. Well, I was cool with that…. for about a day. Maybe a day and a half. I just couldn’t warm up, couldn’t turn in bed with my flannel pj’s admist the flannel sheets, hated the run to the washroom and feet on cold floors (mind you I am 7 months pregnant, running isn’t really my thing right now) and this definitely caused a lot of probs in the household….

So what I am getting at is this— for weeks I not only complained a lot to my husband but I was constantly praying to God to please hear my prayer and tell us what to do. Is this how you are telling us to move God — because we can’t afford a new furnace to replace our 30 year old one, we can’t really afford to insulate the pipes, we can’t turn up the heat and get another $400 bill…is our time, only a short year later, over and we need to be more prudent and show this by getting a little cozy WARM house…..I was praying to God to please inspire my husband with the right thing to do. Albeit sometimes that prayer came out as “God, he’s both Dutch and Jamaican —-how come the Jamaican side –and the need for warmth — is not coming through!!!”

And do you know what happened? The pastor’s wife called me up one evening and said she had great news to share with me. She said there was a couple at our church (who through it all wanted to remain anonymous) but that they felt God calling them to pay a bill for us. We hadn’t really told anyone about our shocker bill and definitely not the amount so this couple was definitely moved by God. God was using His strength to answer my prayer. They gave the pastor’s wife a lump sum of money that was almost exactly what we needed and we humbly paid our bill. That night, we both were on our knees, crying and praising God for just being so amazing!

To this day, I still am not sure exactly what God meant for us to do — telling us to put money in and fix our heating situation or what. But I did feel a peace and calmness that okay, maybe we are not to move and that God wants to have us here. But bottom line of what I learned: that God loves me and protects me and hears my prayer and that he will use His strength, especially when I am weak and maybe even when I am already starting to doubt.

I am not sure if I answered the MMM question correctly, but I definitely felt compelled to share this story/testimony. What I have realized in posting this is that it’s definitely about HIM, but God is so great that he makes it about me. There are billions and billions of people in this world, yet He heard the prayer of one small, desperate and cold woman.