It’s happened a few times in my life where I wake up with a pressing thought. I say pressing because it feels so impressed upon me that I know I need to write it down. And I mean half asleep, can barely hold my eyes open, reaching for my phone to type it into a notes app kind of pressing.
Once before, it happened with a song. Not a new song. A song so impressed upon me that I had to look up the lyrics, because it wasn’t one I knew all that well. But it felt like God was saying to me, “Hey. This is the song you need right now.”
Weirdly enough, that was incredibly true. I was awaiting a worship team audition later that week, and I hadn’t yet been told what song to prepare. It ended up being that exact song. And hey, you know what? That’s how I’m even here. On this website, writing to you right now.
That song was “Make Room.”
So when I wake up with these pressing thoughts, I feel very certain it’s one of God’s ways of getting my attention, of intentionally handing me something I’m going to need.
This morning, I woke up with what I thought was just a content idea. Once again, half awake, I barely finished the sentence I was trying to type into my notes app in the wee hours. But I wrote enough. The idea was probably my own translation, but the words repeating in my head were: Pray without ceasing.
Let me tell you about the morning I had, because after I finally sat down to read my Bible plan for the day, it dawned on me even further that this was a Word from God, preparing me for something I was going to need.
I was going about my morning routine as usual. Made my daughter breakfast (one of her favorites: scrambled eggs) while making my iced coffee. Luna came over to our coffee and tea station, where she likes to pretend she’s making something with the jar of honey and the bag of monkfruit sweetener (which, thankfully, she can’t open… yet).
She kept asking for my hand, interrupting whatever I was doing.
(Side thought: why does she absolutely REFUSE to hold my hand when we’re outside walking, and yet INSIST on holding it when I’m elbows deep in dirty dishes, working with raw meat, or pouring hot water? The exact moments I cannot just give her my hand?)
Anyway. It was a relatively normal morning, until she decided she wanted to dress herself. And if you’ve ever had a toddler, you understand. You simply CANNOT help them. Even if they intend to wear their shirt as pants, their pants as a shirt, and both over their pajamas. 😅
So after the inevitable toddler meltdown, facedown on the floor, I see it. A rash. What looks like hives to me (and trust me, I’d know, I had hives constantly as a kid and never found out what caused them). I look closer and find more on her tummy. Then later, some on her chin and neck. And she’s itching at a few.
Oy veyyyy.
Okay, so this girl spoiled me. She never had reactions like this when she started solids and we worked through all the allergens. So why now? What is it? Eggs? She’s eaten eggs several times a week for most of her life.
And now I’m spiraling. The anxiety is rising. The phone is out and I’m asking ChatGPT, is it normal for this to happen all of a sudden?
Then I paused. And I prayed.
Because somewhere, from someone, I once heard it said:
“When you feel the anxiety rising, it’s your body’s way of reminding you to check in with your Creator.”
So I stopped. I prayed first to hand the anxiety back to Him. Then I took a deep breath and prayed over Luna and her little immune system.
Now let me say, this is not my medical advice, okay? 😄 I decided on the wait-and-watch approach, because the spots seemed to be fading almost as fast as they appeared, getting fewer instead of more. But I’m still worried. And now, of course, terrified to feed her eggs, which is a whole thing, because nearly all of her snacks and the quick freezer meals I prep have eggs in them.
So I went for a walk. Prayed some more. She fell asleep in the stroller, and after I transferred her to her bed, I prayed some more.
And naptime is the quiet moment I get to do my Bible reading uninterrupted (though some days I do it right in the middle of the chaos). So I sat down and began today’s reading: 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5.
And lo and behold. There it is.
“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
God, I see what You did there.
I don’t believe in coincidences anymore. In fact, that’s a theme you’ll see over and over in my writing here. God was preparing me for my day, and reminding me of something important. Even in the hard moments. No, wait, especially in the hard moments.
Rejoice always. Pray continually. Give thanks in all circumstances.
So I’ll leave you with that today. No matter what your day brings, if we remember to hold onto those three things, God will give us the peace we need. In the hard moments, in the anxiety, in the stress, in the chaos.
And don’t forget to do it when things are good, too. Sometimes God uses the hard moments to remind us to come back to Him. But He’s ready and waiting either way. He wants to hear from you. He wants you to pour your heart out to Him in the good, the bad, and the chaotic.
What’s holding you back?