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12 Days of Christmas: My 100th post!

There once was a girl who had a blog. She lived happily with her blessed little family in a little house bustling with activity. Christmas was only days away, and this girl and her siblings were helping their uncle pack a U-haul with some stuff one day, when the mailman came up to the door to deliver a package and letters.

“Merry Christmas!” The mailman said before leaving.

That girl and her siblings quickly sifted through the stack of letters, and one envelope in particular caught their eye. It was addressed to them! And in squeals of delight, they saw it had come all the way from Afghanistan, from one of the Marine women they had written to several months ago. Just before they tore the envelope open in excitement, this girl said:

“Wait, let’s wait and open it when our other sister gets home.”

One of the sisters was not home at the time, so it would not be fair to open the letter until everyone was there to enjoy it. But then, another one had an even better idea:

“Let’s wait and open it on Christmas Eve!”

“YES!!! Let’s do that!” They all agreed in unison.

So the letter was put safely away until Christmas Eve, as a special gift to be opened. In a way, it was an answer to prayer, for they had wished for a reply from the letters they sent through AnyMarine.com to female soldiers overseas. Now it had come!

100th Blog Post Announcement!

Today that girl is typing on her blog, happy to announce this is her 100th post on her little blog! And how neat that she can post about such lovely things that had recently happened. Soon, because she feels like it, and because a lot of  bloggers usually do this at their 100th post, and because she thinks quite a bit of time has passed since she last did this, and because she hopes for the best for this little blog…this girl has decided she will host a giveaway sometime after Christmas! So all her readers around the world should stay tuned to find out when the giveaway will be announced.

Now coming back to first person writing style. Yesterday I read a passage in my daily reading in the book of Matthew. I read it to my little sister in our morning devotions. Several verses really stood out to me.

Matthew 20:21 
And He said to her: “What do you wish?”  

This is such a straightforward question. It comes in the context where the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to request something of Jesus. She was bold in doing so- but Jesus did not reprimand her or say, “how dare you even come to ask something of me!”
Instead he asked her “what do you wish?”
The same thing can apply to us. What do we wish? What are our desires for our spiritual life (our walk with the Lord) and even our earthly physical life? What are your needs? The Lord tells us that we can ask of Him as children ask a father. The mother of Zebedee’s sons requested a huge favor for the ‘spiritual realm’ – something that would take place in heaven. She had great ambitions and she was not afraid of making them known to Christ, even though her request was not necessarily granted or sounded very lofty.

How about you? Do you have great ambitions that have eternal implications? Are you afraid of asking Christ for lofty things that pertain to your spiritual growth?

But the point about requests made to Christ is driven deeper  just several verses later in the chapter. We see another example of people who requested something.  This time it was a very earthly, or physical request. But nevertheless, the people who asked for this favor were just as ambitious and persistent as the mother of Zebedee’s sons! Read the verses below and you will see:

Matthew 20:30-33

And behold, two blind men sitting by the road, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried out, saying, “Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!”  Then the multitude warned them that they should be quiet; but they cried out all the more, saying, “Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!” So Jesus stood still and called them, and said:
“What do you want Me to do for you?”
They said to Him, “Lord, that our eyes may be opened.”

You can see that these two men were practically desperate. They really  wanted to see. They were ambitious, and persistent in asking Christ. And yet, Jesus was not bothered by their boldness, their perseverance. Again, he replies to their request (more likely their cries), just like He did to the woman we just talked about and He asked them what they wanted.
So this shows us that sometimes, when we want something, we must ask God with boldness, persistence and come and lay all our requests at His feet, because we are His children. We must come to the Father with anything that is on our heart- be it requests both heavenly and earthly.

So come before Him with your requests! I already have…and I will continue to tell Him my whole list.  I know I have a great many things I want to ask  for both my life on earth, and my spiritual walk. But one thing I am sure of- I have a Great God who I can tell them to!

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