08/31/2026
August 30- God ordains my steps, literally!
I was in complete tears during the 9 am service worship. By halfway through the worship, I was just filled with gratitude. As I fret about what’s next, I realized that I had forgotten to thank God for all those years God blessed me, though I did not deserve it. At that moment during worship, I just thanked God for all those years of undeserved favor.
And then, Pastor Marty starts off the sermon with this verse, Job 1:20-22: At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.” In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.
I just felt grateful that God gave me that heart of gratitude even before I heard this verse quoted. I felt incredibly encouraged by the sermon. In the past, whenever I was at a crossroads, I raided the altar every week for prayers. In this crossroads season, I have not started that yet, as I wasn’t quite desperate enough. But now, like birthing pains, I can feel the desperation rising. So, after the service, I was contemplating whether I should go for altar prayer or not. As I scanned through the prayer team, I did not see my favorite prayer warriors who usually pray for me. And I kept wondering if I should still go or not. Then my legs started to move towards the front, and I thought I would go towards a group of 2 or 3 people who were standing together. But just then, someone else went over to them. So, I just walked to the couple who were right in front of me. I was actually walking past them, but then I turned towards them. I told them that I got laid off a few months back and am currently doing some upskilling, and asked them to pray for my next steps in my job. The lady was amazed, and she said that she got laid off a couple of months back too, and she decided to serve more in the church and thus joined the prayer team. She heartily prayed for me. She said that she will continue to pray for me this week. And I couldn’t help but ask them if they had been in this altar prayer team before, as I don’t remember seeing them. They said that this was their first ever time, and I happened to be the first person for whom they prayed at that altar. I was in great awe. I remembered the verse that God ordains our steps, and in this case, He literally ordained my steps to walk towards them for prayer. This is how good God is.
Like birthing pains, I would say, as we get closer to God’s appointed time for our breakthrough, we do feel ups and downs in our spirit. A sermon can take us to the mountaintop, and by the end of the day, you may find yourself back in the valley. That’s how I felt by the evening. I prayed over the phone with my college kid, and I broke into tears as I quoted the ‘crooked path straight’ verse over my situation. But even as I myself was in a valley, I sent an encouraging verse to my last job’s team lead, who is of another faith, with whom I pray every Monday for deliverance in her situation. And she replied, “How do you always know?” and said that she was feeling very low this weekend. I replied, “I don’t know, but ELROI knows, and He sees you”. I said Nehemiah’s prayer to God: “Lord, remember all that I am doing. I am in a valley, and I am sending an encouraging verse to another person who is in her valley. Remember me, Lord”.
